Suggestions / BUGS PlecoDict

[mikelove]

jo - we've got a UX50 here for testing now, so hopefully we'll have full keyboard support working in the beta version.

Henry - we'll look into this, but I'm afraid it may be almost impossible to fix; we've had to jump through a lot of hoops just to get PenPower working at all.

FWIW, though, our own handwriting recognizer should be a little more user-friendly in the next update; we finally figured out how to disable the Palm OS' built-in screen writing feature, so now you can write English characters in one part of the screen and Chinese characters in another without ever having to fiddle around with any setting changes.

 

[GaoLong]

How about the KangXi?

The Kang Xi seems to have a large quantity of rare and irregular forms, and there is probably an electronic text of it available somewhere. What do people think about offering it as one of the available dictionaries?

Also, I'd be happy to test the new wordlists you mentioned, especially the C-E one.

I use my Treo more as a platform for Plecodict than as a phone. Thanks again for this next-generation app!

Regards

 

[mikelove]

You're very welcome!

Kangxi is a little too specialized for our purposes, I think (though certainly it's a great reference work). Plus, it contains I believe something like 50,000 unique characters, so it would require a lot of effort on our part to find them all and get them added to our font files. Also, most desktop PC versions of it offer images of the original pages, which obviously wouldn't be very practical on Palm.

If we decide to embark on a Chinese-Chinese dictionary conversion project, we'll probably try to license Xiandai Hanyu Cidian or some other modern reference work. I wish we had the resources to convert something on the scale of Cihai or Hanyu Da Zidian, but at the moment we really don't.

The wordlists (and CEDICT, and I think a couple of other things) should be available as a free download sometime in March. (hopefully on the 1st along with the beta, but I'm not 100% sure about that)

 

[james]

<Back> function

Hi Mike,
I suggested a <Back> feature when you were initially soliciting ideas for Pleco Dict. It isn't in the current beta version, and I haven't read any discussion about it being in the finished version. So I'm bringing it up again, as I find this to be the most annoying aspect of using both the Pleco Dict and the Oxford Dictionary.

The Recent Query List (RQL) works fine if the user wants to return to a previously input item. However, if the user inputs a character/word, scrolls through the lookup list and then makes a selection from the Entry List, there is no direct way to go back to that selection. The only solution is to select the initial character/word from the RQL, then repeat the remaining steps.

I often use a dictionary the way I use my internet browser: I go in looking for one thing (word) and I wind up surfing (looking around). Eventually, I realize I need to get back on task and quickly get back to where I started. With the internet browser, I use the <Back> button. With a paper dictionary, I do this by inserting a bookmark or my finger in the pages and then going back to that page. Pleco Dict should be able to do the same.

In addition to this feature, I also suggest letting the user choose how many entries are stored and how many are displayed. For users whose Palms have plenty of memory, this file could be fairly large, providing them with a very handy way to review their entires for an entire study session. Taking it a step further, allow users to create a "history" (vis Internet Explorer), storing multiple days of lookups. Here again, allow the length of the history to be user customizable, as well as provide a function to manually dump the memory.

Thanks for making this dictionary happen. James

 

[mikelove]

We are definitely planning to include back/forward button support in PlecoDict 1.0. Unfortunately, it's rather buggy, so it might not work very well in the beta version, but it should be in there in some form at least.

 

[gandq]

HWR and E-C mode

hello mike,

i noticed one little thing today: when i switch to the E-C dictionary, the HWR remains active, although there is no use for it in the E-C mode. anyway, when i turn it off to use the whole space for the definiton area and then turn it back on, the dictionary will automatically switch to C-E. that makes sense, as that's the only place the HWR is useful. my suggestion would be to switch the HWR off automatically when going to E-C mode and the have it remember its setting, so that it can automatically switch back on when changing to the C-D dictionary.

cheers,



jo.

 

[mikelove]

Good idea. I can't even promise to correct a particular typo in the beta version at this point, but we'll do this somewhere along the line if we have time.

 

[Jim]

Another "nice to have someday"

Another "nice to have someday when you can get around to it" would be to have instant access still available when in Plecodict and particularly when using flashcards. I realize that it is possible to highlight an unknown word in the definition and use the button to drop it into the input line but instant access would still be handy. In flashcards I find that once in awhile I will know the definition of a multi-character word but forget the exact definition of one of the characters. Instant access would be a handy way to check without interrupting the flashcard session and with the new flashcard system I could even flag for this particular type of mistake.

 

[gandq]

i personally would say that the 'copy to entry filed' button should be there in the resident. but the resident available in the flashcards makes sense, too.


another thing i would like to suggest here is a backspace button or someting for the HWR. of course this would mostly help people with large screen devices. i often find myself having entered a combination of characters that doesn't exist in the dictionary, but instead of whiping them all away i would like to just delete the last one entered. as i have no graffiti area open, i need to mark that last character and then press the 'clear input field' button to delete it (even this clumsy solution doesn't work in the pleco redisdent! one can only have them all deleted).

i know the 'delete last character' option will return, but i like to have control in my own hands when deleting something. (i hate the palm os autoshift!)

in my opinion, the 'list of possible hits' for the HWR doesn't need to be so long, 12 when on the bottom and no graffiti area, 14 (!) whith graffiti area - who needs so many suggested characters? 9 would be completely enough, 6 would also work for most people, i think. that way, one could maybe elongate the entry list (i know this might be complicated, as it is flexible in width) and add some buttons - a backspace button for example.


greetings,



jo.

 

[mikelove]

Jim - we considered adding an always-available instant access mode, but we ran out of time. It's still on our list of future additions, though - it could also include magnified versions of all of the characters in the selected word (replacing the character magnification system), so it has a lot of potential uses.

jo - again it's just a question of time, the basic Instant Access functionality works well enough for what it's designed to do and about the only major changes we're making in the beta are clipboard support (for better compatibility with DocsToGo et al) and the ability to add words to a flashcard list.

We've already added a backspace button to the palettized HWR interface, and we've also reduced the number of character suggestions; in fact we've pretty well overhauled the entire thing for the beta release. The "delete last character" option will not be returning, though - it seems to cause more frustration than it prevents for a lot of people and we don't think it's worth the trouble to re-implement it. So "delete non-matching characters" will be reduced to a simple "clear input field when entering a character" option (equivalent to the "Single" deletion mode in Oxford E&C). However, if there's widespread outcry over this, we might consider adding it back in for the final 1.0 release.

 

[goulniky]

PlecoDict + CJKOS bug

I just came across a bug in the combination PlecoDict + CJKOS : on my UX50, Edit / Keyboard from PlecoDict gets me to the CJKOS keyboard, but if I click on [A] to get to the default keyboard, it immediately crashes with Emul68KCommon.c Line:1594, Index out of range. something that works fine with other apps, e.g. Memopad

 

[mikelove]

We've gotten a few other reports of this, but it's interesting to hear that it applies to the UX50 - we're working on a fix, though I can't promise it will be ready for the first beta version.

 

[rapoto]

Any new release anytime soon?

Hi Mike,

I have version 0.87 PR now. Is there any newer version out yet?

I still have my fonts messy - the down-ligatures of PinYin still dont show on my TREO 600...

--Rapoto

 

[mikelove]

Not yet, but it will be soon. With the ligatures, have you tried deleting and reinstalling all of PlecoDict's font flies? The newer ones in 0.87 should show up correctly.

 

[rapoto]

Hi Mike,

you asked once for information on good Chinese English dictionaries we came across. Well here is a fabulous one (IMHO):

http://www.kingsoft.com/product/131/ciba2005_01.shtml

I and all my company uses it... and many Chinese use it!

Regards,
--rapoto

 

[mikelove]

We're aware of Kingsoft, in fact we approached them a while ago about working with them to develop a PDA dictionary for the Chinese market (but were, sadly, rebuffed). We're hoping to integrate a lot of these features into a future desktop version of PlecoDict, though - at the very least the pop-up definitions from within web browsers etc would be an extremely useful thing to have.

 

[Henry]

Kingsoft

About the Kingsoft products, I used to use one of their desktop dictionaries (before buying the Oxford dict ) and was amazed at the poor quality of the english definitions . . . translating almost any chinese word into english would come up with a number of nonsense words!

Even on the web page mentioned above there are grammatical errors.

Henry

 

[rapoto]

chinese translations missing

Hi,

for quite some entries, the Chinese characters for the text/ words after the principal word are missing.

please see the following as an example:

?? xiao1 V. disappear; vanish B.F. eliminate; dispel; remove xiao1chu2 while away (time) xiao1qian3 disperse; dispense xiao1xi digest xiao1hua4 consume xiao1fei4zhe3 AUX. <topo.> need

only the PinYin is here...

thanx for updating.
Regards,
Rapoto

 

[mikelove]

That's also true in the original ABC data file - characters are only given for example sentences, not for linked words. You'll see the same thing in Wenlin and in the printed ABC dictionary. However, one of the things we're planning for 1.1 or 2.0 is to turn these words into hyperlinks, and if we have time we'll try to work out a way to automatically add in the characters as well.

 

[sui.generis]

Nice... I finally upgraded. I always try and allow a little time for the early adopters to sort out the bugs and then I enjoy the fruits of their labor. Not only do I have a functioning, super-nice-looking new program, all my flashcards were transfered without a blip.

Thanks pleco for a great program, and especially to Mike for your unprecedented availibility to your customers. Since this is a suggestions thread, I suggest you pat yourselves on the back.