2.3 / User Interface Enhancements

[mikelove]

Maybe something with a "building blocks" theme or something along those lines?

Maybe, but I'm worried that may be a little too difficult to figure out.

n other issues, I don't think the "fan" should ever be inaccessible on the iPad when keyboard or hwr mode. It's an extra step to get to it, especially if the user has open for input as a default. I also think that "fan" should always be accessible.

That's been discussed here quite a few times; basic problem is that you can't stack two rows of buttons on an iDevice (and particularly on an iPad, and particularly at the bottom of the screen) without people frequently tapping on the wrong one. Too frequently for something as annoying as accidentally jumping to the wrong screen...

As far as it being accessible with the keyboard / HWR visible, that's more of a debugging problem - we actually had a really hard time getting the input switching to work as smoothly as it does between HWR/Rad/Key and dealing with people switching to a different tab while the keyboard is open would actually significantly complicate matters. Once we drop support for iOS 3 we can handle that input switching in a different way and that'll make life a lot easier, but until then we're sticking with our current approach.

Is it possible to automatically have the character play upon selecting it? Similarly, can pleco do text-to-speech over a large selection without having to select the audio button on each word? Thanks.

There's no option for that at the moment - we did add a similar option for OCR recently though, so it might be worth considering for the reader too. Realistic-sounding text-to-speech for large blocks of text may be coming in a future release, we've been having some interesting discussions on that recently actually...

 

[Shun]

As you are working on extending the Flashcard Statistics, here is another suggestion. Using repetition-spaced, cards are always repeated to a clear schedule, but using Weighted, the repetition of cards being learned is more random. While using Weighted, it would still be great to be able to check which cards have been studied, successfully or not, in the days before. This would be similar to the History button of the Dictionary interface. It would be great to be able to re-learn those cards in the history, just because one feels a quick repeat would be in order. So, in addition to Categories, one could choose a random selection of cards from any number of cards in the history. (perhaps up to 1000 cards back)

What do you think? I think Repetition-Spaced and Weighted both have their advantages and disadvantages, so it would be great to optimize each one independently.

 

[Trickyt57]

Card statistics: the score ranges are geometric, I.e 0 to 100, 100 to 200, 200 to 400, 400 to 800 and so on. Is there any way to turn them into linear, I.e. Ranges 0 to 100, 100 to 200, 200 to 300, 300 to 400, 400 to 500 and so on?

The statistics screen is actually long overdue for a redesign, but your comment about a linear progression is interesting... are you studying flashcards in a way in which the scores are likely to increase linearly? The default Automated scoring system does geometric progression, as do most of the other popular flashcard systems that we're familiar with.

Yes, I am studying in a way where scores increase linearly. I have set the scoring to "manual" so that a correct score increases by 100 and an incorrect answer de-creases by 101. I do it this way so that if I get a card wrong I must answer correctly two times before getting to the old score. So for example my score for one word might go 1000, 1100, 1200, 1099, 1199, 1098, 997, 1097, 1197.

Simply by looking at the score of 1197, I can immediately see that I am having more trouble with this word than another word with a score of 1200. The geometric score table groups all these scores into the band 800 to 1600 which tells me nothing about my learning progress.

Thus I would like to be able to configure my score bands to ranges which suit me.

 

[mikelove]

As you are working on extending the Flashcard Statistics, here is another suggestion. Using repetition-spaced, cards are always repeated to a clear schedule, but using Weighted, the repetition of cards being learned is more random. While using Weighted, it would still be great to be able to check which cards have been studied, successfully or not, in the days before. This would be similar to the History button of the Dictionary interface. It would be great to be able to re-learn those cards in the history, just because one feels a quick repeat would be in order. So, in addition to Categories, one could choose a random selection of cards from any number of cards in the history. (perhaps up to 1000 cards back)

You can already get a list of recently reviewed cards via Search Cards, but there's no way to test on those yet... we've actually had a few other requests for a way to do tests on arbitrary sets of cards from there, though. I think something like that would add a lot more flexibility than simply adding a new option to review recently-reviewed cards, though perhaps a quick way to pull up a list of those would be a nice addition too...

Yes, I am studying in a way where scores increase linearly. I have set the scoring to "manual" so that a correct score increases by 100 and an incorrect answer de-creases by 101. I do it this way so that if I get a card wrong I must answer correctly two times before getting to the old score. So for example my score for one word might go 1000, 1100, 1200, 1099, 1199, 1098, 997, 1097, 1197.

Simply by looking at the score of 1197, I can immediately see that I am having more trouble with this word than another word with a score of 1200. The geometric score table groups all these scores into the band 800 to 1600 which tells me nothing about my learning progress.

Thus I would like to be able to configure my score bands to ranges which suit me.

Makes sense. We'll see about making those customizable in a future release...

 

[Shun]

Yes indeed, testing from search results would be great. Maybe when displaying search results, a button to create a list like a dynamic playlist in iTunes that can be added to the Categories tree, would be nice. Of course, also a static list would need to be possible to generate from search results. If this functionality is too much for power users, maybe it could be hidden a little bit.

 

[mikelove]

Yes indeed, testing from search results would be great. Maybe when displaying search results, a button to create a list like a dynamic playlist in iTunes that can be added to the Categories tree, would be nice. Of course, also a static list would need to be possible to generate from search results. If this functionality is too much for power users, maybe it could be hidden a little bit.

This would probably replace the "Fixed" card selection option we have now, actually - just have to sort through how to merge the Search Cards + session cardlist generation code, which are done in two totally different places at the moment.

 

[goldyn chyld]

So how's 2.3 coming about?

 

[mikelove]

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.

 

[goldyn chyld]

Great, thanks!

 

[BrianTung]

It's tricky to fit in more than 3-4 letters per button... do you think icons would be an improvement? HWR (pen) and Key (keyboard) would be easy, the other three are tricky since we're trying not to use any more Chinese character icons (Rad) and "full" and "wild" aren't entirely clear concepts.

The only thing I can think of as an icon for radicals is to highlight a radical in a Chinese character. But I don't think there's anything terribly wrong about the way it's done now. You can't possibly encode everything needed to understand what the button does in that small a space; all it can do is serve as a reminder of the button's function, and for that, the current set-up is just fine. (Although, just as an aside, I think I mildly prefer "kbd" to "key" for keyboard.)

 

[character]

It would be nice to have [an option to add] a search box on the view that displays definitions, with the ability to search in the definition. Some definitions are quite long and the formatting is very...compact.

When I add a word to flashcards I'd like to add the individual characters as well. Is there a setting which does this automatically?

 

[mikelove]

The only thing I can think of as an icon for radicals is to highlight a radical in a Chinese character. But I don't think there's anything terribly wrong about the way it's done now. You can't possibly encode everything needed to understand what the button does in that small a space; all it can do is serve as a reminder of the button's function, and for that, the current set-up is just fine. (Although, just as an aside, I think I mildly prefer "kbd" to "key" for keyboard.)

We've gone back and forth on that - "Key" to me seems more obvious to someone who doesn't spend a lot of time around computers, though "kbd" is a bit more standardized...

It would be nice to have [an option to add] a search box on the view that displays definitions, with the ability to search in the definition. Some definitions are quite long and the formatting is very...compact.

The compact-ness should be addressed this summer - we already have a beta PLC database that puts nice generous spacing between example sentences and such - but a search box would make sense as well; should be easy to put in once we're doing the same thing for the document reader.

When I add a word to flashcards I'd like to add the individual characters as well. Is there a setting which does this automatically?

No, but we've been talking about adding one as a workaround for the fact that stroke order only supports single characters.

 

[藏森林]

Just want to add my +1 to putting a keyboard (that disappears or what not) on the bottom of the write character screen. And then do away with the normal osx input option. Switching between the two as current is my biggest frustration/time waster on Pleco. Especially as my ipod is slow.

 

[mikelove]

ust want to add my +1 to putting a keyboard (that disappears or what not) on the bottom of the write character screen. And then do away with the normal osx input option. Switching between the two as current is my biggest frustration/time waster on Pleco. Especially as my ipod is slow.

We'd still have to provide that option too - some people might prefer it, and others might be using jailbreak-only IMEs that they prefer. But it seems clear we need to provide some more efficient way of getting between keyboard and handwriting anyway...

 

[goldyn chyld]

When approx. can we expect 2.3 with all those new dictionaries?

 

[mikelove]

When approx. can we expect 2.3 with all those new dictionaries?

Excellent question

Seriously, there are a number of elements in play now - we're spending a lot of time at the moment catching up on a few things on Android, in part because it's a great place for us to experiment with some new UI ideas; a less brazenly terrible interface for Search Cards, e.g., and the already-implemented new combined dictionary entry/character info screen. We've also got two dictionaries on which we're still waiting for data files, and since they're pretty closely related to some other others we're launching and we'd like to put them all in a big bundle that's another reason to wait.

So it's definitely coming, but I'd be crazy to make any predictions about release dates.

 

[goldyn chyld]

Ahh, well I do hope it will be released soon (i.e. a month or 2 from now), as I can hardly wait! Btw, how often does Pleco update the CEDICT dictionary?

 

[mikelove]

Ahh, well I do hope it will be released soon (i.e. a month or 2 from now), as I can hardly wait! Btw, how often does Pleco update the CEDICT dictionary?

Intermittently - we're overdue for one, actually, so there'll probably be another in a week or two.

 

[Tezuk]

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

 

[mikelove]

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.