2.3 / User Interface Enhancements

[Tezuk]

Is there anywhere to view a list of the new vocab added to the dictionary?

Which one? We don't have a good list like that for PLC since we've been steadily adding vocabulary.

I was thinking more of CEDICT. I know how to access the full dictionary updates, but out of curiosity is there a list anywhere just of the updated vocab lists.

 

[mikelove]

I was thinking more of CEDICT. I know how to access the full dictionary updates, but out of curiosity is there a list anywhere just of the updated vocab lists.

Not that I know of, but we keep all of the old versions of the source files so I suppose we could share those since they're CC-licensed (and you could then do a diff of them yourself) - which ones are you looking for?

 

[Peter Blazejewicz]

Hi all,

not being sure if that was requested (I was not able to find that via search for "idle")
I've use-case for UI improvements request. When I'm learning (via flashcards or via digging into details of search results) I often practice stroke order. This means that I can left my iPhone unused (untouched) for long period of time until I perfect sometimes complex strokes on paper (you know, 15 strokes, etc). But during this time idle timer could be fired and first screen is deemed and then (or shortly later) screen is locked. So when practicing I'm forced to tap screen from time to time to prevent screen dimming (and locking).
I knew that Apple HUIG could be problematic here:

The only applications that should disable the idle time are mapping applications, games, or similar programs with sporadic user interaction in the form of touches.

http://developer.apple.com/library/.../UIApplication_Class/Reference/Reference.html
but I think that could be valid reason of using application "idleTimerDisabled" property during practice mode (if there would be 'practice mode' added, e.g. in form of option in Settings>Panel>Stroke Order or implemented in any other fashion).

regards,
Peter

 

[mikelove]

I've use-case for UI improvements request. When I'm learning (via flashcards or via digging into details of search results) I often practice stroke order. This means that I can left my iPhone unused (untouched) for long period of time until I perfect sometimes complex strokes on paper (you know, 15 strokes, etc). But during this time idle timer could be fired and first screen is deemed and then (or shortly later) screen is locked. So when practicing I'm forced to tap screen from time to time to prevent screen dimming (and locking).
I knew that Apple HUIG could be problematic here:

The only applications that should disable the idle time are mapping applications, games, or similar programs with sporadic user interaction in the form of touches.

http://developer.apple.com/library/.../UIApplication_Class/Reference/Reference.html
but I think that could be valid reason of using application "idleTimerDisabled" property during practice mode (if there would be 'practice mode' added, e.g. in form of option in Settings>Panel>Stroke Order or implemented in any other fashion).

In practice Apple seems to allow for a lot of developer discretion regarding when to disable the idle timer, so I don't think we'd get into any trouble with them over this, so it's mainly a question of whether this feature would see enough use to be worth implementing - probably the most logical time to add it would be in conjunction with the new timed auto-advance test mode we're working on, since we would need to disable the idle timer for that regardless. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[dqian]

So how's 2.3 coming about?

We've been saying "summer" for a while and that remains the plan - at the moment the main focus here is on wrapping up the first Android beta, though we've also been working on a bunch of new dictionary licenses which we're hoping to have ready along with 2.3.

So the summer is passed and now it has been the Autumn...

Any screenshot? Or sneak peak on a new & polished icon maybe?

Can't wait any more...

 

[mikelove]

So the summer is passed and now it has been the Autumn...

Any screenshot? Or sneak peak on a new & polished icon maybe?

Can't wait any more...

Yeah, I should really stop giving out time estimates for these things... don't have any new information to share at the moment, we're still working on it but we've been slowed down by a combination of Android taking a long time to wrap up and some external delays / complications from two of our publishers. Plus the fact that we have a terrible track record as far as predicting how long it'll take for us to do stuff

 

[藏森林]

I don't know if it's possible on such a small screen, but since you're doing a merged dictionary search, would it be possible to stack or show different words at once (one dictionary, but different entries)? It's not a huge deal as I can always (as currently) load up the history and go back and forth between items, but it doesn't work as nicely as say Wenlin in this regard. Also, some items don't show up in history too, which is a pain (when you first look up an individual character, then see what words contain it and click on one).

As someone who uses Pleco as a dictionary, and not at all for flashcards, reader, etc, the stronger that is the better!

Thanks

 

[mikelove]

I don't know if it's possible on such a small screen, but since you're doing a merged dictionary search, would it be possible to stack or show different words at once (one dictionary, but different entries)? It's not a huge deal as I can always (as currently) load up the history and go back and forth between items, but it doesn't work as nicely as say Wenlin in this regard. Also, some items don't show up in history too, which is a pain (when you first look up an individual character, then see what words contain it and click on one).

As someone who uses Pleco as a dictionary, and not at all for flashcards, reader, etc, the stronger that is the better!

It's possible in theory, but in an app like ours where we're trying to provide lots of supplementary information on an entry it makes more sense to lock the screen to one entry; one big change in 2.3 is that we're building the Character Info screen right into the dictionary entry display screen (with a bar at the top to let you select a character from a multi-character word to view info on), and that obviously doesn't work so well if you're displaying lots of entries at the same time.

Regarding history, we could certainly add an option to put words selected through the compounds list in the history too - in general we try to only add words sparingly since we want to make it easy to go back and find a particular word you looked at earlier. Is there anywhere else you wish words were being added to the history where they aren't being added now?

 

[藏森林]

Regarding history, we could certainly add an option to put words selected through the compounds list in the history too - in general we try to only add words sparingly since we want to make it easy to go back and find a particular word you looked at earlier. Is there anywhere else you wish words were being added to the history where they aren't being added now?

That would be great. And just from that place, that I use at any rate. I suppose other people might want it from the reader too, but it's not something I use.

While I can't quite visualise the new system you described, under the current, if a multi entry was to be considered, one way it could be implemented is by swiping entries to the side, and after having swiped all those you want to compare, one of the revealed buttons could be clicked. The entries would then be shown in full, one after the other.

It's no deal breaker by any means though. Pleco is definitely already superb. But it would be helpful.

Best

 

[mikelove]

That would be great. And just from that place, that I use at any rate. I suppose other people might want it from the reader too, but it's not something I use.

We've had a few requests for a reader lookup history, yes - we'd probably store that in a separate place so it wouldn't obliterate your recent search history if you paged through a document.

While I can't quite visualise the new system you described, under the current, if a multi entry was to be considered, one way it could be implemented is by swiping entries to the side, and after having swiped all those you want to compare, one of the revealed buttons could be clicked. The entries would then be shown in full, one after the other.

Is this for the same word or for different words? We've already been looking at a combined one-after-another list as one of the ways we might display multiple entries for the same word, but I'm not quite seeing the use of this for different words that happened to be adjacent in the dictionary or search results - wouldn't it be easier to just scroll through the results?

 

[藏森林]

For different words or characters. If you have two or three words which are roughly the same, it's helpful to compare them together. In Pleco it would probably be more used through the history page than general search (you look up one word, look up another, then want to compare).

It comes naturally in Wenlin, you can stack them one after the other.

 

[mikelove]

For different words or characters. If you have two or three words which are roughly the same, it's helpful to compare them together. In Pleco it would probably be more used through the history page than general search (you look up one word, look up another, then want to compare).

Something with history makes more sense, though I'm still skeptical of its effectiveness on small screens compared to just scrolling through entries with buttons - probably worth doing a few experiments at least, though.

 

[kun4]

Inconsistent user interface:

In flashcards -> card statistics -> category : clicking on arrow goes one up one level, clicking on category name selects current category.

In flashcards -> organize cards -> clicking on arrow selects current category, clicking on category name goes up one level.

Very confusing.

 

[mikelove]

Inconsistent user interface:

In flashcards -> card statistics -> category : clicking on arrow goes one up one level, clicking on category name selects current category.

In flashcards -> organize cards -> clicking on arrow selects current category, clicking on category name goes up one level.

Very confusing.

It works this way because the category picker screen is mainly designed for picking more than one category when starting a session / doing an export; in those cases, you're going to want categories to be expandable on the same level, because then you can tell at a glance exactly which categories are selected / partially selected and can efficiently get in and customize them.

In Organize, on the other hand, the goal is to let you see exactly which cards and child categories are within a particular category so that you can reorder / regroup them as you see fit. Using an expandable hierarchy on that screen would be confusing and unnecessary.

We could do a better job at making the arrow icons in the category picker more distinct from the ones in Organize, though - they're serving two different functions and they ought to look like it. Or we could put the arrows in the category picker on the left side instead of the right, though that seems likely to irritate some people since they'll be harder to hit that way.

 

[Shun]

Hi,

I have two suggestions about flashcards. Splitting: Fill the first subcategory (if I split to, say, 25 cards) with the first 25 cards, fill the second subcategory with cards 26-50, and so on, in the order they were originally in.

Adding new cards: The option to edit a card right after adding it.

Thanks!

 

[radioman]

Re: User Interface Feedback Thread

Well this is wild... and maybe old news - but its new to me.

Specifically, I scan my books and OCR them. The problem is that the OCR for the PDF, when copied to a text file, is out of context with regard to where it is on the page. Also, the OCR docs are big. Its better than nothing.

So I have been taking the books to class and then use the iPhone best as I can in case there are words I do not know.

But since my PDFs are pretty good quality scans, it dawned on my that I could take full page screenshot of the PDF page on the iPad. And simply OCR it using Pleco. So if there were 5 pages that were being reviewed in that class, I quickly take screenshots of the pages of interest. The good part is that I just figured out that I do not even have to leave the picture, and can directly OCR right on top of of the picture.

At this point the only small tweak I would really like is that, when I select an area / OCR / and then hide the green characters, the background of the highlighted area I am reading remains gray - For me, its just harder to read than the black characters with the brighter, whiter background. Perhaps there could be an option where when you hide the characters, you leave the green box, but turn off the gray shading within the box. I looked around a bit and could not find such a setting.

One other thing is that, on the iPad, it is much easier to select the areas to OCR. So books/PDFs with pictures or other areas that you do not want to OCR are much more easily avoided.

All in all, very cool indeed.

 

[mikelove]

I have two suggestions about flashcards. Splitting: Fill the first subcategory (if I split to, say, 25 cards) with the first 25 cards, fill the second subcategory with cards 26-50, and so on, in the order they were originally in.

Adding new cards: The option to edit a card right after adding it.

Both good suggestions, thanks!

 

[mikelove]

Re: User Interface Feedback Thread

(moved your post here since it wasn't really Android-related)

But since my PDFs are pretty good quality scans, it dawned on my that I could take full page screenshot of the PDF page on the iPad. And simply OCR it using Pleco. So if there were 5 pages that were being reviewed in that class, I quickly take screenshots of the pages of interest. The good part is that I just figured out that I do not even have to leave the picture, and can directly OCR right on top of of the picture.

At this point the only small tweak I would really like is that, when I select an area / OCR / and then hide the green characters, the background of the highlighted area I am reading remains gray - For me, its just harder to read than the black characters with the brighter, whiter background. Perhaps there could be an option where when you hide the characters, you leave the green box, but turn off the gray shading within the box. I looked around a bit and could not find such a setting.

One other thing is that, on the iPad, it is much easier to select the areas to OCR. So books/PDFs with pictures or other areas that you do not want to OCR are much more easily avoided.

I'm glad you found this useful - only thing missing is native PDF support, which we're still hoping to add at some point to save you from fiddling around with screenshots.

Good suggestion about adding an option to hide the shading in Block Recognizer - it's a pretty subtle effect anyway so if it's hurting readability maybe we should just take it out altogether.

 

[radioman]

Some more comments on the ergonomic front.

I was in class today and was looking at A http://cl.ly/3V0w1q200s3m360W1Q3q on my iPad.
I want be able to get from A to B http://cl.ly/0l153l1S2P2m0K1r082W (ultimately in a single gesture).
A - Block reader function.
B - Dictionary - I can quickly look up a definition.

Note that with A, the reader is in position where I want it to be.
Note that B is all set up to enter text off the keyboard (or handwriting) for definitions.
I consider how they are set up to be a good steady-state position for their use in class.
However, without going through all the motions motions, it takes more than a gesture to get from A to B.

Other general comments:
- I would like to have a way to anchor to the bottom. (maybe with an option to keep it there so the bubble is not coming in and out).
- On the iPad at least, have the file names of the files under the picture.
- it would be great to have functions like some gesture to resize so that the green box would be fit to screen (kind of like double clicking text in Safari to get the text column to widen to fit the screen.
- Also, for the green box, another idea was that, if you press and hold inside, you could move the green box around the screen (it would keep its original size).
- 2 or more Photos imported and handled at the same time, or perhaps the ability to page through photos with a swipe to bring in the next photo, rather than having to go looking for it. (e.g., subsequent pages).

I figure I'm kind a misusing the Block function here, trying to make it into a PDF reader of sorts. But the fact that it keeps everything in context is very useful. So yeah, having all the reader features would be nice.

 

[mikelove]

Some more comments on the ergonomic front.

I was in class today and was looking at A http://cl.ly/3V0w1q200s3m360W1Q3q on my iPad.
I want be able to get from A to B http://cl.ly/0l153l1S2P2m0K1r082W (ultimately in a single gesture).
A - Block reader function.
B - Dictionary - I can quickly look up a definition.

Note that with A, the reader is in position where I want it to be.
Note that B is all set up to enter text off the keyboard (or handwriting) for definitions.
I consider how they are set up to be a good steady-state position for their use in class.
However, without going through all the motions motions, it takes more than a gesture to get from A to B.

Isn't it basically two taps? Fan + Dict (or Read)? The fan button is a bit far away from the bottom bar, but we're already addressing that in 2.3.

- I would like to have a way to anchor to the bottom. (maybe with an option to keep it there so the bubble is not coming in and out).

Already supported in the document reader, but it's a bit trickier here because we need to play around with the image's scroll boundaries so that you can tap on the very bottom of the image and not have it obscured by the bubble.

- On the iPad at least, have the file names of the files under the picture.

Pretty much the same coding issue as the last one, so we'd probably do these together. Though this would make much more sense in the context of a proper PDF reader.

- it would be great to have functions like some gesture to resize so that the green box would be fit to screen (kind of like double clicking text in Safari to get the text column to widen to fit the screen.

Very good idea, thanks!

- Also, for the green box, another idea was that, if you press and hold inside, you could move the green box around the screen (it would keep its original size).

This one I don't like so much - seems like for those kinds of lookups (line by line, I suppose) you're better off with Scroll Lookup Words.

- 2 or more Photos imported and handled at the same time, or perhaps the ability to page through photos with a swipe to bring in the next photo, rather than having to go looking for it. (e.g., subsequent pages).

Again, something to do when we add a PDF reader. (really is going to happen eventually)

I figure I'm kind a misusing the Block function here, trying to make it into a PDF reader of sorts. But the fact that it keeps everything in context is very useful. So yeah, having all the reader features would be nice.

Well there's quite a lot of demand for it to actually act as a PDF reader - far and away our most requested OCR upgrade now (other than magically adding autofocus to the iPod Touch, anyway) - so it's not an unreasonable thing to look for.