Pleco for Android Beta 2 Bug Report Thread

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
jamesquek said:
At the 字info section, after you chose certain fields and then flick it off, you can't choose them again. I had the Cangjie field on for quite a while but after flicking off inadvertently, I couldn't find it anymore. In fact, a lot more fields were cast in the some black hole.

CangJie at least is a "rare" field, so it's not visible in the menu by default; perhaps you disabled the option to show those fields. Go into Settings / Dictionary / Definition screen interface / Other Tabs and turn on "Show rare 字info options" and that should bring them back.
 
On my Samsung Galaxy S II, I'm getting frequent "false starts." I launch Pleco, no problem. Then I use other apps on my phone for a while. Switching back to Pleco is when the symptom manifests: I press the Pleco icon and the screen goes black as if it's delaying before loading Pleco. But it just stays black and Pleco never loads. I have to hit the home button and press the Pleco button again. The second time always works: Pleco correctly loads to to its last context, and doesn't restart from scratch so I know it's not some sort of crash.

It's really annoying to have to launch Pleco twice after not using it for a while because you never know if it's delaying or permanently "stuck." I needed Pleco on short notice on the street the other day, and by the time I was able get it to load, the situation had become a little embarrassing due to my linguistic deficiency.
 

jamesquek

举人
Re: iPhone Feature Requests

Postby johnh113 » Thu Jul 21, 2011 3:41 am

jamesquek wrote:Mike,

How about a adding a new feature where you can rope in characters with same phonetic components, e.g., 京,惊,鲸,or 旦,坦,但,担。It would be great for character studies. Clavis sinica has this.



Dear JamesQuek,

You can do something like this by selecting the character and clicking on the 字 button. This brings you to a page where you can select a tab for "Details," "Strokes," "Chars," or "Words." Select the "Chars" tab and it has a list of all the components of that character. Click on one of those and it will show you a list of words that use that component. Very useful for exactly the reason you describe.

John

I don't suppose you have this feature for the current Android Beta? Is it a feature you will be including in the full version?

Also, how about having an option to exclude entries with highly technical terms with tags like <geology>, <chemistry> and leaving only entries that are general. I am asking for this because I love to browse Plecodict ad hoc for useful or elegant words and set phrases.
 

Sarevok

进士
JimmyTheSaint said:
On my Samsung Galaxy S II, I'm getting frequent "false starts." I launch Pleco, no problem. Then I use other apps on my phone for a while. Switching back to Pleco is when the symptom manifests: I press the Pleco icon and the screen goes black as if it's delaying before loading Pleco. But it just stays black and Pleco never loads. I have to hit the home button and press the Pleco button again. The second time always works: Pleco correctly loads to to its last context, and doesn't restart from scratch so I know it's not some sort of crash.

It's really annoying to have to launch Pleco twice after not using it for a while because you never know if it's delaying or permanently "stuck." I needed Pleco on short notice on the street the other day, and by the time I was able get it to load, the situation had become a little embarrassing due to my linguistic deficiency.

I noticed a similar behavior on my Transformer as well, I don't have to hit the Home button though - the screen goes black for a second or two and then switches back to the home screen automatically. There is no way to reproduce this bug at will - it occurs randomly, usually after not using Pleco for some time (measured in hours).

Another thing - when I copy some Chinese text into clipboard, it sometimes appears in the search box immediately after switching to Pleco, which is very convenient (since I can't add a Paste button on the Toolbar like in the WM version) and I guess this should be the standard behavior. But it happens very rarely, about as often as the above-mentioned bug. After that, I always have to tap'n'hold on the search box and manually hit Paste (after copying another chunk of text into clipboard).
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
JimmyTheSaint said:
On my Samsung Galaxy S II, I'm getting frequent "false starts." I launch Pleco, no problem. Then I use other apps on my phone for a while. Switching back to Pleco is when the symptom manifests: I press the Pleco icon and the screen goes black as if it's delaying before loading Pleco. But it just stays black and Pleco never loads. I have to hit the home button and press the Pleco button again. The second time always works: Pleco correctly loads to to its last context, and doesn't restart from scratch so I know it's not some sort of crash.

Yeah, we've observed this once or twice too but we're still trying to trace back the source - this is why we like our extremely long beta tests :)

jamesquek said:
You can do something like this by selecting the character and clicking on the 字 button. This brings you to a page where you can select a tab for "Details," "Strokes," "Chars," or "Words." Select the "Chars" tab and it has a list of all the components of that character. Click on one of those and it will show you a list of words that use that component. Very useful for exactly the reason you describe.

I don't suppose you have this feature for the current Android Beta? Is it a feature you will be including in the full version?

Also, how about having an option to exclude entries with highly technical terms with tags like <geology>, <chemistry> and leaving only entries that are general. I am asking for this because I love to browse Plecodict ad hoc for useful or elegant words and set phrases.

It's already included - requires the Stroke Order Diagrams add-on, though, since it uses the same database.

An exclude feature like you mention would certainly be possible, and we've been thinking about an "advanced search" mode anyway, but it's not likely to actually show up for a couple of releases.

Sarevok said:
Another thing - when I copy some Chinese text into clipboard, it sometimes appears in the search box immediately after switching to Pleco, which is very convenient (since I can't add a Paste button on the Toolbar like in the WM version) and I guess this should be the standard behavior. But it happens very rarely, about as often as the above-mentioned bug. After that, I always have to tap'n'hold on the search box and manually hit Paste (after copying another chunk of text into clipboard).

Yeah, it only happens at the moment when Pleco isn't already running in the background - this should be fixed in the finished version.

Thanks for the feedback!
 

Felth

秀才
I know flashcards are not released yet But I have been running through it and making categories for exporting to other flashcard systems. Now All of the categories have disappeared and when i try to create a new category nothing happens. I only have the uncategorized list available. Just curious if this has happened to anyone else. Or whether it is just because the Flashcards aspect is not yet complete.

7" verizon galaxy tab.
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
Felth said:
I know flashcards are not released yet But I have been running through it and making categories for exporting to other flashcard systems. Now All of the categories have disappeared and when i try to create a new category nothing happens. I only have the uncategorized list available. Just curious if this has happened to anyone else. Or whether it is just because the Flashcards aspect is not yet complete.

We've had a few other reports of this - our working theory is that it has something to do with unreliable file access on SD cards; have you removed / replaced your SD card recently, or perhaps dropped your device in such a way that the card might have come loose?
 

Felth

秀才
I have actually never removed my SD Card and Since no other program has issues. And I'm not sure why it refuses to let me create new ones. Apart from re-installation of the Beta are there any other procedures that could get the program to accept new category creation?
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
Felth said:
I have actually never removed my SD Card and Since no other program has issues. And I'm not sure why it refuses to let me create new ones. Apart from re-installation of the Beta are there any other procedures that could get the program to accept new category creation?

Could you send me your flashcard database? Should be on the root directory of your SD card.
 

pgiles

Member
This exact same thing just happened to me. I have been happily using what functionality there is with flashcards at present and had set up 10 or 15 different categories. I just went to set up a new one and suddenly all existing categories disappeared with the exception of uncategorized. i am now unable to create any new categories. I have never removed my SD card, nor dropped my phone as far as I recall.
 

Felth

秀才
Already reinstalled. I had to delete that file to get it to re-allow for flashcard category creation. But I'll keep it and send it to you if I can get it to happen again.
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
pgiles said:
This exact same thing just happened to me. I have been happily using what functionality there is with flashcards at present and had set up 10 or 15 different categories. I just went to set up a new one and suddenly all existing categories disappeared with the exception of uncategorized. i am now unable to create any new categories. I have never removed my SD card, nor dropped my phone as far as I recall.

This sounds like a corrupted flashcard database as well - could you send me your flashcard database file? Should be on the root directory of your SD card. If there's a "journal" file with the same name, send that along as well, and after you've done that delete the journal file and reopen Pleco - does that make any difference?

Felth said:
Already reinstalled. I had to delete that file to get it to re-allow for flashcard category creation. But I'll keep it and send it to you if I can get it to happen again.

OK, thanks!
 

TangZhe

Member
Hi,

I have installed pleco 2.3b2a following the instructions and transfered my WM license to my HTC Sensation. After starting I can not see the Handwriting Input. It only shows me "Rad", "Key" and "Vox". The list of Installed Modules shows "Hanwang Handwriting Recognizer" as "purchased".

The OCR Module should be installed as "Demo", according to the Pleco Informations, but when I try to start it a message shows up telling me no OCR Module is installed.

Did I do something wrong or is it a bug?

Device: HTC Sensation
Android: 2.3.3
HTC Sense 3.0
8GB SD Card installed
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
TangZhe said:
I have installed pleco 2.3b2a following the instructions and transfered my WM license to my HTC Sensation. After starting I can not see the Handwriting Input. It only shows me "Rad", "Key" and "Vox". The list of Installed Modules shows "Hanwang Handwriting Recognizer" as "purchased".

The OCR Module should be installed as "Demo", according to the Pleco Informations, but when I try to start it a message shows up telling me no OCR Module is installed.

Did you install only the German dictionary add-on and not the main bundle of add-ons? You need to install those too.
 

TangZhe

Member
Hi Mike,

thx for the quick reply. Please find my answers below.

mikelove said:
TangZhe said:
I have installed pleco 2.3b2a following the instructions and transfered my WM license to my HTC Sensation. After starting I can not see the Handwriting Input. It only shows me "Rad", "Key" and "Vox". The list of Installed Modules shows "Hanwang Handwriting Recognizer" as "purchased".

The OCR Module should be installed as "Demo", according to the Pleco Informations, but when I try to start it a message shows up telling me no OCR Module is installed.

Did you install only the German dictionary add-on and not the main bundle of add-ons? You need to install those too.

I installed the complete data file from http://www.pleco.com/plecodroid-data-110527.zip, the audio files and the HanDe Dictionary. But for some reason the db files where not extracted to my sd card. After I manually extracted those to the sd card pleco comes up with handwriting and ocr.

Thx for your quick and professional help. Now I can start using and testing pleco on my new device. Looking forward to the flashcards.

Greetings from Germany
 
so i just got a galaxy s2 about a week ago. havent been using pleco too much, but so far its pretty good.
ocr works good in general, but i had the same issues a couple of times as another s2 user: the live view sometimes cant identify any characters at all and sometimes i cant see my own handwriting.

also id like to request some features.
- ability to import a picture and make it into a text file and then translate the full thing and save into a document
- when you look up characters there should be a way to add them to a list without clicking on them and then pressing add on its own screen, and then go back to the list to look up the next char, and so on
- a way to export lists to anki, or tell us how to do it right now?

anyway, great software!
 
also, i just tried another ocr translating software called CamTranslator. It uses the same type of live view translating as Pleco and as far as I know, Google Translate's dictionaries.
So for dictionaries, Pleco should be better, but Google might come in hand at times too.
And, I find their live view easier to use than Pleco's. Basically you, you point the crosshair at a word and then tap the screen and it then locks on the word.
I guess Pleco is kind of the same, except you see it translating live, but its harder for it to lock I feel. Maybe because its a beta, but still, maybe you could check out this app and see what you think of their way?
And also, what about adding google's dictionary?
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
spacelounge said:
i had the same issues a couple of times as another s2 user: the live view sometimes cant identify any characters at all and sometimes i cant see my own handwriting.

We're still having trouble reliably reproducing those, but hopefully we'll get to the bottom of them soon.

spacelounge said:
also id like to request some features.
- ability to import a picture and make it into a text file and then translate the full thing and save into a document

Conversion of an entire picture to text should be supported in the finished version, just as on iOS.

spacelounge said:
- when you look up characters there should be a way to add them to a list without clicking on them and then pressing add on its own screen, and then go back to the list to look up the next char, and so on

The history screen does that - are you looking for a feature to automatically add looked-up words to flashcards? I'm a bit worried people might forget they had that on and end up with thousands of extra flashcards, though I suppose we could give it some sort of prominent indicator button. We do have an OCR mode like that on iOS that we're planning to bring to Android, though (mainly designed for scanning in word lists from textbooks).

spacelounge said:
- a way to export lists to anki, or tell us how to do it right now?

That one's less likely - they have an extremely complicated file format, we haven't even worked out a good way to import lists from Anki yet (which is a bigger business priority as you might imagine).

spacelounge said:
So for dictionaries, Pleco should be better, but Google might come in hand at times too.

Google has actually discontinued their dictionary product now, so I don't think it's much of an option - we do support CC-CEDICT, though, which does a very good job with the sort of new vocabulary that people sometimes look to Google for.

spacelounge said:
And, I find their live view easier to use than Pleco's. Basically you, you point the crosshair at a word and then tap the screen and it then locks on the word.

We support a similar sort of functionality with the settings option to pause the recognizer while your finger is held on the screen - we think our auto-lock functionality works pretty well (and we're continuing to refine it) but if you prefer to lock it manually you can certainly configure Pleco to do so.

A crosshair option should be coming once the dual-core iPhone shows up; we attach a lot of importance to the recognizer feeling "live" and updating instantly as you move the camera, which we don't think we can achieve on single-core devices if we add the extra code needed to detect / automatically select character boundaries, but with dual-core it should be quite doable. New OCR features pretty much have to debut on iPhone first, since debugging native code on Android is an absolute nightmare, but if it works well on dual-core iPhones it should work well on dual-core Android phones too.
 
Hello there,

three days ago I installed Pleco on my new Android device (HTC Desire S) and have been playing around with it quite a lot.
For almost two years now I have been using Pleco on my Samsung Omnia i900 with Windows Mobile until I bought a new phone last week.
I have to admit I was a bit sceptical, I have seen Pleco on the iPhone and it just did not compare with the Windows Mobile version.
(first of all, no thumb or finger will ever be as accurate as a pen; secondly I bought my Samsung in China so it came with a chinese Windows Mobile version).
So far I am pretty happy with my new Pleco. Here are some things I noticed (after reading this whole thread):

When I switch on suggestions ("second chars on tap") for HWR it seems to work at first. But then I noticed the following: when, for example, I write the
character 我 I get the suggestions 们,国,的 and 家。By tapping on 国 it admittedly appears in the input field, but when I tap on it for a second time, it
transforms into 战. When I tap on 们 it also appears in the input box, a second tap transforms it into 我. A second tap on 的 or 家 also gives me completely
different results (sometimes replacing the character, sometimes adding extra characters). In my opinion it should look like the following:

I type 我 into the HWR field, select it and get the suggestions. A tap on any of those suggestions should be put after the 我. So if I tap on 们 but then decide
to replace it with 家 the input field should show 我家.
My chinese Windows Mobile hand writing recognition (三星手写, as I just found out) also had suggestions for written characters but managed it a bit differently. After a tap on the suggestion it displayed suggestions for the tapped suggestion, like going deeper into a directory. :D Plus, what I really would like is a list of 8 instead of 4 suggestions. People using Android should check out this input system, I am also using it in Pleco: https://market.android.com/details?id=c ... rch_result

My second complaint would be that I cannot access single characters from multi-character words or whole sentences. For example: when I look up the word 喜欢 in the PLC-dictionary I get the example 我喜欢热闹. In my WM version I could simply access the character 闹 by tapping on it. But when I tap on it in the Android version it selects the whole word 热闹. I know that I can look up the meaning of 闹 in the definition screen, but it still is complicated somehow. I really liked how you could select all different characters (i.e. in the examples) in the WM version and thus just look up the characters you wanted to look up, but in this version no marking at all is possible (would it be hard to implement the possibility of marking one or multiple characters and then looking them up?).

Lastly, I want to second the idea of closing the popup definition screen by tapping the back-button on the Android device instead of closing Pleco completely.

I also wanted to ask which dictionaries will be included in the final version. I sure loved the ACE on Windows Mobile, and used Guifan almost as often.

I really want to thank you for this great program and I am grateful for the way you are letting users participate in the development process.

Bye, Michael.
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
Thanks for the feedback!

burdenofhope said:
When I switch on suggestions ("second chars on tap") for HWR it seems to work at first. But then I noticed the following: when, for example, I write the
character 我 I get the suggestions 们,国,的 and 家。By tapping on 国 it admittedly appears in the input field, but when I tap on it for a second time, it
transforms into 战. When I tap on 们 it also appears in the input box, a second tap transforms it into 我. A second tap on 的 or 家 also gives me completely
different results (sometimes replacing the character, sometimes adding extra characters). In my opinion it should look like the following:

I type 我 into the HWR field, select it and get the suggestions. A tap on any of those suggestions should be put after the 我. So if I tap on 们 but then decide
to replace it with 家 the input field should show 我家.

Good point - this would definitely work better.

burdenofhope said:
My second complaint would be that I cannot access single characters from multi-character words or whole sentences. For example: when I look up the word 喜欢 in the PLC-dictionary I get the example 我喜欢热闹. In my WM version I could simply access the character 闹 by tapping on it. But when I tap on it in the Android version it selects the whole word 热闹. I know that I can look up the meaning of 闹 in the definition screen, but it still is complicated somehow. I really liked how you could select all different characters (i.e. in the examples) in the WM version and thus just look up the characters you wanted to look up, but in this version no marking at all is possible (would it be hard to implement the possibility of marking one or multiple characters and then looking them up?).

We actually deal with this on iOS by having selections in the headword always pop up the "bubble" on the single character you tapped on rather than on the entire word - we're planning to do the same thing on Android, just haven't implemented it yet.

burdenofhope said:
Lastly, I want to second the idea of closing the popup definition screen by tapping the back-button on the Android device instead of closing Pleco completely.

This one's already been implemented and will be in Beta 3.

burdenofhope said:
I also wanted to ask which dictionaries will be included in the final version. I sure loved the ACE on Windows Mobile, and used Guifan almost as often.

ACE is now PLC (and is free, and improved / continuing to be improved - long-term we'd like it to even displace ABC though it's not there yet). Guifan is available on Android - are you not able to access it?
 
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