Pleco 4.0

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Aoli

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Hi,

I have read in several threads that a new version of Pleco is coming soon : Pleco 4.0,
with many new and useful features (the one interesting me the most being the ability to have more than 3 levels of sub-categories).

Thus I have two questions :
1/ When will it be released (approximatively : few weeks, few months, one year, ...) ?
2/ Could you write here or somewhere more official a list of the new features that are coming within this new version ?

Thank you.
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
I'm afraid we're not ready to talk about either of those things yet - we don't want to promise features or a release date and then fail to deliver / meet them.
 

HW60

状元
Actually it is not too difficult to find out what Pleco 4.0 is going to be: just search the forums for "4.0" and you can find

06.04.2017 #1 not supported yet but should be coming in 4.0.
22.03.2017 you'd have to convert the card to custom text first and then manually add the example. This will be fixed (= is already fixed in development builds) in 4.0
14.03.2017 We've already added the option to embed custom audio for 4.0.
06.03.2017 you should be seeing a much more interesting version of 'alternating' in 4.0
05.03.2017 Also already implemented for 4.0 - dictionary entries are now basically little XML
05.03.2017 Already implemented for 4.0.
28.02.2017 However, since 4.0 will support multiple custom fields
27.01.2017 system requirements are going to go up a lot in Pleco 4.0
03.01.2017 Already done for 4.0, actually - flashcards are now treated as a user dictionary and automatically included in searches
01.01.2017 Batch command for that has been written now + is currently active in development versions of 4.0. (automatic character flashcards generation)

and so on, and that is from 2017 only. But when will it come? For the forum it may be better to get a release date which is postponed again and again (like Berlin airport or Hamburg concert hall) instead of listening to fantastic new features without any guide as to when they will be available.
 
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mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
The problem is that the forums are read by many people who don't post on them, including prospective customers - we don't want people buying Pleco in anticipation of 4.0 being out on such and such date and getting upset when we don't deliver it on time.
 

Shun

状元
How about putting out an intermediate release in 2-3 months—if I remember correctly, it was originally planned to put out versions 3.3, 3.4, and so on—and calling it 3.5, just to take away the pressure to produce such a massive & perfect 4.0 release? Even if you had to leave most things like in Pleco 3.2 because of interdependencies, and even if it's added work, this may help satisfy many users' demands and allow more time for the actual 4.0 release? :)
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
The timing on that would pretty lousy given that iOS 11 beta is likely to debut in June. Also, candidly, we're just not getting that much pressure on this; we've been promising a Big Flashcard Update since 2011 or so and at this point most people have either resigned themselves to the current system's limitations or switched to another flashcard app (in which case they're unlikely to consider switching back to Pleco anyway until 4.0 is out). So the amount we'd gain through an intermediate release isn't really enough to justify what would actually be quite a lot of added effort.
 

Shun

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I agree on all counts, and it's also a good thing that the pressure really isn't that high!
 

HW60

状元
we're just not getting that much pressure on this; we've been promising a Big Flashcard Update since 2011 or so and at this point most people have either resigned themselves to the current system's limitations
Almost every day you find new posts about people who do not understand the flashcard settings or would like to limit the number of cards for review. But they can choose between more than 65,000 colour settings. It is a pity that you do not feel some pressure by those users who resigned.
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
If we could fix all of those problems in a 3.x update then it wouldn't be a 3.x update. Releasing a 'big update' that only adds complexity or introduces more problems isn't really helping matters any - the whole reason we're taking our time is so that we can do it intelligently and coherently rather than just throwing a bunch of new features in and calling it a day.
 
Also, candidly, we're just not getting that much pressure on this; we've been promising a Big Flashcard Update since 2011 or so and at this point most people have either resigned themselves to the current system's limitations or switched to another flashcard app.
In other words, most people resign themselves or switch to another flashcard app rather than exert pressure. I certainly won't exert any: I can only imagine how complex it must be what you and your small team are doing (add two kids at home, if I remember right). I haven't neither resigned to using Pleco's present version nor switched to some other flashcard app. It just so happens that lately I'm not using flashcards, so I'm in no hurry and can wait quietly for Pleco 4.0. Understandably enough, I sometimes wonder whether the new version (together with a good manual) will be out either this year or the next.
 
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mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
I think we'd match the dictionary entry - the STROKE tab is coming up in a definition screen covering a specific pronunciation for a character.
 
But when will it come? For the forum it may be better to get a release date which is postponed again and again (like Berlin airport or Hamburg concert hall) instead of listening to fantastic new features without any guide as to when they will be available.
Will it ever come?
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
It'll certainly come, we're working on it very hard - we just don't think it's a good idea to discuss release dates.

Vocabulary context is probably happening, Lyrics Reader comeback is I'm afraid rather more iffy - it seems unlikely we'll ever be able to get it working well with items in your system music library again, since Apple seem to have completely given up on worrying about music that's not in Apple Music, so it would just be a feature to extract lyrics from MP3 files that you'd loaded into Pleco, and we're not yet convinced that enough people would use that to be worth implementing, particularly not if doing so further delays the release of 4.0.
 
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