Chinese-Chinese Title

[mikelove]

We finally have a signed license agreement in hand, so now at long last I can announce the title of the Chinese-Chinese dictionary we're planning to release with Pleco 2.0: the 现代汉语规范词典 (Xiandai Hanyu Guifan Cidian), published by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. ISBN is 7-5600-3975-8, and a website (in Chinese) is available at http://gfcd.fltrp.com/. This is a spectacular new Chinese-Chinese dictionary, with 68,000 entries including detailed definitions, examples, and (rare for a Chinese-Chinese dictionary) parts of speech. And among its many prestigious editors is the legendary Lv Shuxiang, who actually has his very own entry in the ABC dictionary. So it should really be a wonderful addition to the next version of our software.

 

[Jim]

This is great news. Went quickly through the website and this is a great choice. Congratulations on acquiring the license.

I hope when this is released with Pleco 2.0 that there is a way to make this the default dictionary. This would make it easier for me to always go to Chinese - Chinese lookup first and only go to Chinese - English lookup if I need extra help or the word just isn't there.

By the way, please hurry up and get Pleco 2.0 out by the end of this week. I really want this.

 

[gandq]

Default Dict / Dict Search Order

Hi Mike,

Jim has a good point there. It would be great if one could choose the order in which dictionaries are searched. A kind of search hierarchy like:
1. Always search the User Dict first (no matter which Dict is active when the search is started)
if there are no results
2. search the C-C (when released)
3. search the Oxford
4. search the ABC
and so on. Something like that.

Greetings,



jo.

 

[sui.generis]

Very cool. Keep up the good work. You need to sell this stuff in brick and mortar shops so your groupies can start lines days in advance with camping gear and the like. Star Wars wouldn't be worth it, but Pleco? Maybe.

 

[mikelove]

Jim/gandq - yes, dictionary selection is a major area of redesign for 2.0. Not only should it be possible to re-order the search priority in whatever way you like, but we'll likely move beyond the current E-C/C-E system and let you define custom dictionary "groups." So for example if you wanted to put the Guifan Cidian in its own separate category you could easily do that. Or if you wanted all of the C-E dictionaries to show up in the list when you tap-hold the dictionary switch button, but only wanted it to search 1 or 2 of them automatically, you could set that up as well. Also, there may be an option to marshal entries from multiple dictionaries in the same definition field, which would be another way to get around this.

sui.generis - Thanks! Perhaps a Pleco-Lucas crossover is in order, "Star Wars Episode 7: The Revenge of the Incomprehensible Flashcard Settings Screen."

 

[Jim]

Also, there may be an option to marshal entries from multiple dictionaries in the same definition field, which would be another way to get around this.

That would be a very nice feature. If we could set the order of the dictionaries and have all the definitions appear in that order on a single list it would pretty much eliminate the need for the change dictionary button. We could just scroll down through the definitions as far as we need to be satisfied.

Please don't forget to allow instant access while Pleco is open. With a Chinese - Chinese dictionary I know I will need it frequently.

 

[mikelove]

Yes, there should definitely be some sort of way to pop up definitions within the dictionary; probably not the exact same interface as Instant Access, but at least some way to pop up a definition without using Copy to Input Field.