This will be slightly vague, but here's a quick outline of what the (mostly) finished Pleco 2.0 flashard design is shaping up to look like. As with all of my 2.0 feature talk, this should all be considered preliminary and subject to change - nothing is final until the product is finished.
Optimization - "Ranks" are officially dead, replaced by the much more intuitive and flexible idea of "points." Each card starts with a fixed number (default 100) of points; more points will cause a card to show up less often, and fewer points more often. There's a configurable ratio of points to days for repetition spacing, and points will factor linearly into frequency-based searches as well (so a card with 200 points would show up half as often in frequency-adjusted sessions as a card with 100 points).
More interesting on this front is how exactly the "points" value changes. As in the current software, you can configure the points to increase by a fixed number (or, new in 2.0, a percentage) after a certain number of correct answers, or decrease after a certain number of incorrect answers. However, there's also a new "Automated" mode that uses a system very similar to those in programs like SuperMemo and Mnemosyne; i.e., each card keeps a "difficulty factor" independent of its point total which dictates how the score changes, and that difficulty factor goes up or down slightly each time you answer correctly or incorrectly (so there's essentially a 2-level score optimization process going on).
Also as in those programs, you can optionally have the system prompt you or how well you remembered the card after each answer. New (as far as we know) in Pleco, however, you can manually adjust the aggressiveness of the algorithm, so if you're young and have a mind like a kitchen sponge or old and have a mind like a a granite countertop you can start studying with the software already configured to accommodate that.
Test Modes - we currently have five; self-scored and review-only both return from 1.0, but are joined by multiple-choice (at long last), free-answer (should work with both Pinyin and characters, though we're still debating about the character part; you can also have it give you the Pinyin and ask you just for the tones), and stroke order. We're still working some kinks out with the stroke order tester, so this may get punted to a later release, but we're optimistic we'll be able to keep it in 2.0. Also new, audio will also be available as a fourth "Show" option in addition to Chars/PY/Defn.
Card Organization - as I've said here several times, Lists and Flags are both no more, replaced by "Categories" - you can have as many categories as you want, and each card can belong to an (effectively) unlimited number of them. Each category can have an (effectively) unlimited number of subcategories, also, convenient for keeping large numbers of categories organized; you could, for example, create a single category for a textbook and stick each chapter in its own subcategory. We're not planning more than 2 levels of categories as yet, though we certainly could introduce "supercategories" at some point... Another oft-requested addition: a new "Split" option which will automatically break a category up into subcategories, so those 1500-card HSK lists can easily be broken up into manageable chunks.
"Manage Cards" has also gotten a big overhaul, there's one big list instead of two small ones and instead of simply choosing a category and listing the cards in it you can specify a (fairly complicated) search term and list all cards that match.
Profiles - you can now save a set of flashcard session settings in a specific "profile" to save the trouble of reconfiguring them manually each time you want to change test modes.
Score Files - you can now maintain multiple sets of statistics/scores for each flashcard, useful for example if you want to brush up on your stroke order or Pinyin tones without having it interfere with your basic word-meaning memorization.
Simple Mode - interface design's ultimate triumph over itself, this will drop cards back to one-category-only and ditches most of the session options (so setting up a new flashcard session involves just one screen instead of five).
Saved Sessions - calloh callay, anytime you exit a session in the middle you're prompted about whether or not you want to save it to resume later.
So basically it's a pretty colossal redesign, and I haven't even mentioned the significantly more customizable flashcard session interface or the new Import/Export options (including a super-user-friendly "Pleco Import Database" format that we'll use for distributing lists on our own site).
Optimization - "Ranks" are officially dead, replaced by the much more intuitive and flexible idea of "points." Each card starts with a fixed number (default 100) of points; more points will cause a card to show up less often, and fewer points more often. There's a configurable ratio of points to days for repetition spacing, and points will factor linearly into frequency-based searches as well (so a card with 200 points would show up half as often in frequency-adjusted sessions as a card with 100 points).
More interesting on this front is how exactly the "points" value changes. As in the current software, you can configure the points to increase by a fixed number (or, new in 2.0, a percentage) after a certain number of correct answers, or decrease after a certain number of incorrect answers. However, there's also a new "Automated" mode that uses a system very similar to those in programs like SuperMemo and Mnemosyne; i.e., each card keeps a "difficulty factor" independent of its point total which dictates how the score changes, and that difficulty factor goes up or down slightly each time you answer correctly or incorrectly (so there's essentially a 2-level score optimization process going on).
Also as in those programs, you can optionally have the system prompt you or how well you remembered the card after each answer. New (as far as we know) in Pleco, however, you can manually adjust the aggressiveness of the algorithm, so if you're young and have a mind like a kitchen sponge or old and have a mind like a a granite countertop you can start studying with the software already configured to accommodate that.
Test Modes - we currently have five; self-scored and review-only both return from 1.0, but are joined by multiple-choice (at long last), free-answer (should work with both Pinyin and characters, though we're still debating about the character part; you can also have it give you the Pinyin and ask you just for the tones), and stroke order. We're still working some kinks out with the stroke order tester, so this may get punted to a later release, but we're optimistic we'll be able to keep it in 2.0. Also new, audio will also be available as a fourth "Show" option in addition to Chars/PY/Defn.
Card Organization - as I've said here several times, Lists and Flags are both no more, replaced by "Categories" - you can have as many categories as you want, and each card can belong to an (effectively) unlimited number of them. Each category can have an (effectively) unlimited number of subcategories, also, convenient for keeping large numbers of categories organized; you could, for example, create a single category for a textbook and stick each chapter in its own subcategory. We're not planning more than 2 levels of categories as yet, though we certainly could introduce "supercategories" at some point... Another oft-requested addition: a new "Split" option which will automatically break a category up into subcategories, so those 1500-card HSK lists can easily be broken up into manageable chunks.
"Manage Cards" has also gotten a big overhaul, there's one big list instead of two small ones and instead of simply choosing a category and listing the cards in it you can specify a (fairly complicated) search term and list all cards that match.
Profiles - you can now save a set of flashcard session settings in a specific "profile" to save the trouble of reconfiguring them manually each time you want to change test modes.
Score Files - you can now maintain multiple sets of statistics/scores for each flashcard, useful for example if you want to brush up on your stroke order or Pinyin tones without having it interfere with your basic word-meaning memorization.
Simple Mode - interface design's ultimate triumph over itself, this will drop cards back to one-category-only and ditches most of the session options (so setting up a new flashcard session involves just one screen instead of five).
Saved Sessions - calloh callay, anytime you exit a session in the middle you're prompted about whether or not you want to save it to resume later.
So basically it's a pretty colossal redesign, and I haven't even mentioned the significantly more customizable flashcard session interface or the new Import/Export options (including a super-user-friendly "Pleco Import Database" format that we'll use for distributing lists on our own site).