Beta 6 Bug Report / Feedback Thread

[mikelove]

Yes, you can sort flashcards by ID by using Random card selection and checking the "don't shuffle session cards" box - that will leave them sorted by ID.

The reader's actually supposed to leave a one-line scroll overlap already - is it not doing so? Speeding up file open isn't something we have time to do for 2.0, unfortunately - it's a text encoding conversion issue, if you encode the file in UTF-16 (not possible with a PalmDoc but possible with text files at least) that should get it to open a lot faster.

 

[stephanhodges]

it's a text encoding conversion issue, if you encode the file in UTF-16

Is there a way to save the newly encoded version, or perhaps replace the existing doc file with it, so that the start up delay only happens the first time?

 

[gato]

Yes, you can sort flashcards by ID by using Random card selection and checking the "don't shuffle session cards" box - that will leave them sorted by ID.

Thanks, that worked. Maybe it should labeled something else. Sorting by ID number makes it no longer random.

The reader's actually supposed to leave a one-line scroll overlap already - is it not doing so?

Just checked again. It advances exactly by one page as far I can tell. Maybe reduce it by two lines, then?

 

[stephanhodges]

Palm Tapwav
Additional crashes. I reported before that importing a vocab list crashed for Unicode big endian. Am sending you one. These files are created by Wenlin in that format. I've tried with full file (sent via email 3C02.txt) and also by first stripping all but headword and pinyin (using Excel), since I separate by tabs.

Importing a text file into reader (also Unicode big endian as verified by Notepad) crashed the Tapwav. I waited a long time, then tried to press the down arrow on the reader portion of the scroll bar (even though I didn't see any text yet. Sending that file DZ01Text.txt also.

Crash = need to press reset button on backside. Not removing battery, etc.

 

[mikelove]

stephanhodges - no way to save the re-encoded file, unfortunately, though it might make sense to release a utility for that - the current plan is to get UTF-8 files reading directly at some point (much easier than GB/Big5 since it's very easy to find the start of a new character from a random point in the document, while with GB/B5 you could have to scan through hundreds of characters or more to find one)

The big-endian issue is a bug we think we've found now, could also affect little-endian on WM actually.

gato - good point about Random, but I'm hesitant to add another option to that popup menu, since it's a pretty important setting and I don't imagine the non-sorted mode is likely to get used by more than a small number of users. We'll double-check on that reader scroll.

 

[stephanhodges]

I don't imagine the non-sorted mode is likely to get used by more than a small number of users.

This is the only way to see all of the words in the order entered. Actually, I use it all the time, so that I can match up the word with the vocabulary lists in the textbook.

I would actually like an option that would display a "word #" within each list. (Of course, I'd also want to edit that number :roll: ).

 

[stephanhodges]

Palm Tapwave

I drew a three character phrase using the "Ru" screen. When finished, I clicked Done, and it said "not found". Turns out I selected the wrong first character. But, the result was that the normal input line is now garbled, with the type of thing you see when someone sends you a Chinese encoded file (not unicode), and your computer doesn't support it. (I'm emailing you an example).

Worse, now I cannot display ANYTHING in the input line anymore. Not sure how to clear this error out of Pleco. School started today, so today (of course!), I'm actually depending on it (since I accidentally erased version 1).

 

[ipsi]

Does nothing happen if you click the eraser button on the '入' screen for the flashcards? I think I had a similar issue, but Beta 6 fixed that for me...

 

[stephanhodges]

I did the eraser thing, etc.

No, this is the main dictionary. The line where you input new pinyin, or select from history, etc. Even if I select a good word from history (the drop down list is OK), the dictionary is fine, the drop down is fine, but it fills "garbage" into the input line.

But, you gave me an idea. I typed in some pinyin characters and looked up a word that way, then copied the hanzi into the input field, and it's working now. Of course, I also turned off "Preferences->External->Input Field Compatibility" just now too.

Since I had just turned that on (at Mike's suggestion from an email) about an hour previous, perhaps that's where the "bug" lies?

 

[stephanhodges]

Tapwave, Palm

I don't think I've reported this before, but right now I'm just not sure.

In flashcards, I cannot figure out how to show pinyin + definition first, and "reveal" hanzi. When I pick "Test Setup", test type "Self-Scored", and Show "Definition", then "Headword" ALWAYS shows up also. This is a bug because I cannot NOT select headword. Every card MUST have a headword now, unless I've done something wrong.

Also, there's no option for pinyin.

So: it should be "none, headword, pinyin (pronunciation), definition" as the choices. Able to pick one or two of them and "reveal" the last one.

Headword only
Definition only
Pinyin + Definition
?? Pinyin only (not sure I'd ever use this one)

***EDIT***
A second bug, when I try to actually run a session with the above selected, it always says "No flashcards were found that met your criteria".

*** SECOND EDIT ***
OK, perhaps I see what's going on. I had a profile set up with Card Language set to "English", which really means flashcards linked to the ENGLISH dictionaries, not the "english language" definitions. So, second bug isn't a bug, although I'd be inclined to say it needs better wording or a better user manual

 

[marsch]

THANKS SO MUCH for the PnPUnloadDelay tip! Wish I had known that a year ago – that would’ve saved me lots of frustration and reboots!

Still a few more questions and problems:

Manage Flashcards / Sort order: if I filter by cat and “sort by none”, it seems like they’re “sorted” by pleco_flash_card.id (i.e. creation date), not by pleco_flash_categoryassigns.id (i.e. “added to cat” date) – or is that a wrong observation? It really makes it a bit difficult to select some words from a lesson say for practicing dictation. Having an additional number – as stephanhodges suggested – would be a great idea!

Re not saving flashcard session: couldn’t find a file sitting around in MyDocs or root folder. I’m running repetition spaced sessions – is that the information you were asking?

“sort by difficulty” doesn’t work correctly when the filter includes cards that are not in the scorefile. In that case it first displays those cards (with a difficulty of 100), then the ones with an actual score/difficulty, correctly sorted.

In a flashcard session, sometimes the +/- button doesn’t reflect correctly whether the card is already in the cat “hidden” behind that button. It always works fine (i.e., toggles the cat on/off), but sometimes it just stays on +.

Flashcard session / tap-and-hold category popup (+/- button): the order of cats is checked/unchecked, I guess, which is a bit weird when a top level cat is checked, but its child isn’t. Then that child appears under some other cat.

Flashcard session: when going back to previous words, the top line doesn’t change. Design or bug?

Flashcard session: Sometimes the Hanzi overwrites the Pinyin text that follows it, e.g. 2zì (self/from…). Font sizes: Defn 14, List 14, Head 36, Zoom 48, Font Rendering Win Gray.

Jumping between dict entries by clicking on links in the definition doesn’t always work correctly: e.g. try to jump from 4dài (treat/entertain, in ABC dict) to 2dāi – it jumps to 1dāi.

I tried to enter yìlián, 一连, which of course didn’t work as the sandhi on yi is not considered. So I had to enter yīlián. Might cause some confusion, if you want to write from hearing only.

Looking forward to beta 7

 

[radioman]

I have gotten the Dell Axim and am now transferring off the Palm - I will write more on that in a future post. However initial thoughts is that it provides a much more stable platform and provides lovely graphics.

The challenge I have right now is that I have my flashcards that I want to move over. Comments as follows:

1) I have version 1 from palm running with the most up-to-date flash card decks.

2) a few weeks ago, I somehow got a successful export of the flashcards using the pleco convert utility. That is a 3MB file that I have somehow gotten into the root of programfiles/pleco/ directory. Pleco could see it.

3) I tried to do an import of PDB, and it did not do much. Nothing was imported.

4) Now when I try again, through Pleco V6 on the Axim, if I go to the Flashcard Module and choose import, then I am prompted to choose a file, but in the dropdown (or whatever space there is next to "Choose File" button), there are (I presume) 2 unicode boxes (i.e., the classic "no font installed" boxes) as well as the word "pengyou" (I did a search on that earlier in the session so it must have been stored). I now cannot make "penyou" clear out, so I can no longer select a given file for input.

**** any suggestions on how to clear that out field?
**** any suggestions on how to best get either the version 1 palm cards or the exported flash cards from a few weeks ago into Axim Pleco 2 beta 6?

 

[mikelove]

stephanhodges - adding a separate editable "word #" column to the database would be a massive undertaking and not something we're likely to do in the near future at least - not possible to do that with IDs since the IDs can't be easily changed. In general we'd like to steer people away from the model of seeing lists in the same order, since pedagogically we don't think it's a very good idea and software-wise it's a lot of work to maintain, so keeping the option buried seems like a good idea.

The garbled input line is happening because you enabled Input Field Compatibility mode but don't have a Chinese OS installed on your system (or don't have Pleco set to use the same encoding that it does) - the point of Input Field Compatibility is to let you use Pleco with non-Pleco text input systems like CJKOS and the Palm OS' built-in keyboard, but it does that by using regular Palm OS text input fields instead of our own proprietary ones, and those fields can only display Chinese characters if your system is set up to do so. So it's not a bug, it's doing exactly what it's supposed to do, but in your case if you want to use a separate keyboard for Pleco you're going to need to invest in a copy of CJKOS. (or get some sort of system hack that replaces the Graffiti area with an onscreen keyboard that sends out single-character text input messages)

Good point on Language not necessarily being labeled obviously - we should probably bury that somewhere where people are less likely to run into it by accident. I'm not seeing this other bug here, the headword doesn't show up unless it's selected - the disappearing Pinyin option suggests this is happening because of that English setting, there is of course no option to have Pinyin as a separate field if you're using English-to-Chinese flashcards.

marsch - strange, I thought that would end up sorted by category assignment ID. But those IDs aren't really meant to be used for that, even if at the moment they happen to correspond to the order in which cards are assigned to categories - we're really pretty set on flashcards in 2.0 being part of a non-ordered "pool" rather than an ordered list, so while adding ID sorting in sessions made sense as a small concession to people who were accustomed to using the old system, going forward we'd rather find other ways to let you do the same things using this new "pool" concept than go back to the awkwardness of the old list system. So why does the order matter in this case? If all of the cards are from the same lesson, can't you just, say, add the first few cards that come up in the search result to a new category without caring about what order they were added in?

The +/- and non-updated fields issues are a known bug, should be fixed in B7. Categories the card is already in are shown at the top of the list to make it easy to remove it from them, and also to give you an easy way to check on which categories the card is in without going into Card Info. Factoring in the tone sandhi into Pinyin searches isn't really feasible, I think the best bet if you're going to go by that is just to enter the Pinyin without tones.

radioman - not sure why that import screen is getting corrupted, we'll take a look. If you use both of the preferences-clearing commands in the Misc section of preferences (reset prefs and clear recent searches) that might clear out the saved settings from the last import, but it sounds like something else might be wrong here - what exactly happens when you tap on that Choose File button? It should just bring up a standard Pocket PC file open box.

 

[stephanhodges]

since pedagogically we don't think it's a very good idea

That's how we're required to study words here, and it's been that way for the last 2 years. (Harbin). We're assigned words in a numbered range. Using a "numbered" list is also the basis of several memory systems (not all).

 

[radioman]

I cleared out the preference, and got what I consider normal action with regard to file selection. I saw the 3Meg file that was created using the version 6a PlecoCvt function (a pdb file). Note that this file was generated on a Palm and by a Palm. I then moved it over via memory card to internal memory.

When I went to choose the file, it looks like I chose it, but then it just sits there and did not do anything. I then had control over the program (it was not locked up...). Nothing was apparently imported.

I tried selecting the file again, same thing, where apparently no real activity takes place. However, the dialog box did properly present this round.

Can I used the palm export to pull directly into WM5 Pleco V2? Short of reverse engineering, I looked at the file with a text editor and it is populated with plenty of what I would call "expected" data for what exists within my flashcards.

Sorry if this is a re-request of any earlier guidance.

...
radioman - not sure why that import screen is getting corrupted, we'll take a look. If you use both of the preferences-clearing commands in the Misc section of preferences (reset prefs and clear recent searches) that might clear out the saved settings from the last import, but it sounds like something else might be wrong here - what exactly happens when you tap on that Choose File button? It should just bring up a standard Pocket PC file open box.

 

[plecoUser]

Possible bug here:

WM5, iPaq rx1950

1. When closing a flashcard session (multiple choice), I'm prompted to select whether or not I want to save the session for later.
2. Select Yes.
3. ... do something else on the PDA like surf the web for a bit ...
4. Go back into Pleco and go to the Flashcard module.
5. I'm prompted to select whether or not I want to continue my old flashcard session.
6. Select Yes.
7. PDA appears to load briefly but nothing changes. The main pleco window is still visible, but no flashcard session was started.
8. Repeat step 7 as many times as you like, it won't restore the old session.
9. Doing a soft reset or choosing to start a new flashcard session solves the problem.

 

[mikelove]

stephanhodges - interesting. Well I guess we can at least take a quick look and try to see why they aren't sorting by category assignment order, though it may not be feasible to fix it without causing a huge performance hit (SQLite's kind of funny that way).

radioman - it was a PDB file? Sorry, I didn't get that - that explains the problem, you want to export it as a regular XML file instead; the Pocket PC version can't import one of those PDB export files directly. It's very easy to convert them to regular XML files, though, you just use a hex editor (or even a text editor like Notepad / Wordpad / etc should work) to strip out all of the garbage that appears before the first <plecoflash> tag and save it with file extension .xml. Or just export it as an XML file initially. (the reason the Pocket PC version can't open those directly has to do with a complicated system we use to keep track of the regular PDB data files and open newly-installed ones)

plecoUser - we've gotten a few other reports of saved session issues, though we're still trying to reproduce them consistently here - thought we'd fixed the problem but it seems clear we haven't. Anyway we'll keep hacking away on it. (it's one of the biggest things holding up Beta 7 at this point, along with the flashconvert / export issue on Palm)

 

[radioman]

Would exporting flashcards to xml preserve all my scoring information?

 

[ipsi]

Yes, it will.

 

[goog1e]

goog1e - that's odd... so it's always the same card? Anything at all unusual about it, length or rare characters or missing Pinyin or anything like that? Is this in self-scored or some other mode? Could you send me a copy of your flashcard file by any chance? (along with letting me know which card it is)

Mike, I've sent you the file using your ml@p address with the subject "flashcard file per plecoforum request". Thanks for investigating.