I'm very excited about the new "Wenlin" dictionary for a PDA and can't wait to trash this tablet PC for a handheld. I wanted to ask first if you've tested your software with the Dr. Eye software by Inventec and the Penpower software. Will Dr. Eye recognize characters when the cursor is put on a character within your software? There seems to be some programs for Windows, Wenlin for example, that aren't compatible with this Dr. Eye function.
Compatibility with Dr. Eye and Penpower
- Thread starter sf954
- Start date
Unfortunately, the upcoming preview release will not be able to work at all with external programs like Dr. Eye and PenPower, and I'm not sure if there'll ever be a version that supports Dr. Eye.
In order to stop having to produce massive updates with every new Palm OS release and fix some long-standing problems with Chinese text display, we've written a text display system for PlecoDict that's almost completely independent of Palm OS - this provides a lot of benefits, but one of the downsides is that programs like Dr. Eye have no easy way of figuring out what text is located where on the screen because they don't know how we store or encode it. We haven't actually tested our software with Dr. Eye yet, and if it has the option of pulling text from the clipboard then it might work with the final version of PlecoDict, but I'm afraid it's pretty unlikely. PenPower should work in the final version because we'll be adding an interface for you to input characters from external software like PenPower, CJKOS, HanWang, et al. Unfortunately, though, that feature isn't available in the preview release.
But out of curiosity, why are you interested in using these two pieces of software with PlecoDict? Our own built-in handwriting recognizer now allows you to write characters right on the screen, so there's little advantage to using PenPower instead, and our software also includes the ability to quickly look up a word in a dictionary entry - you simply highlight the word and tap on a button to bring up its definition. In fact the old Oxford Dict software and the finished version of PlecoDict both include the ability to do what Dr. Eye does and look up words in other applications. And actually Wenlin on PC has that ability too - simply holding your cursor over a word in Wenlin will bring up its definition on the bottom of the screen.
In order to stop having to produce massive updates with every new Palm OS release and fix some long-standing problems with Chinese text display, we've written a text display system for PlecoDict that's almost completely independent of Palm OS - this provides a lot of benefits, but one of the downsides is that programs like Dr. Eye have no easy way of figuring out what text is located where on the screen because they don't know how we store or encode it. We haven't actually tested our software with Dr. Eye yet, and if it has the option of pulling text from the clipboard then it might work with the final version of PlecoDict, but I'm afraid it's pretty unlikely. PenPower should work in the final version because we'll be adding an interface for you to input characters from external software like PenPower, CJKOS, HanWang, et al. Unfortunately, though, that feature isn't available in the preview release.
But out of curiosity, why are you interested in using these two pieces of software with PlecoDict? Our own built-in handwriting recognizer now allows you to write characters right on the screen, so there's little advantage to using PenPower instead, and our software also includes the ability to quickly look up a word in a dictionary entry - you simply highlight the word and tap on a button to bring up its definition. In fact the old Oxford Dict software and the finished version of PlecoDict both include the ability to do what Dr. Eye does and look up words in other applications. And actually Wenlin on PC has that ability too - simply holding your cursor over a word in Wenlin will bring up its definition on the bottom of the screen.
Penpower entry system
I would like to be able to use the Penpower system- 'cause it's got all those pretty colors . . .
But seriously folks, it is also a little bit faster because you don't have to press the 'recognize' button (optional) and choose from a list.
Another pro is that by not having the handwriting recog. pallette on-screen you can see a lot more of the definition.
This is only true if you can write the character fairly quickly, if you are copying it out of a book the built-in system is better then Penpower's because there's no time limit.
Henry
I would like to be able to use the Penpower system- 'cause it's got all those pretty colors . . .
But seriously folks, it is also a little bit faster because you don't have to press the 'recognize' button (optional) and choose from a list.
Another pro is that by not having the handwriting recog. pallette on-screen you can see a lot more of the definition.
This is only true if you can write the character fairly quickly, if you are copying it out of a book the built-in system is better then Penpower's because there's no time limit.
Henry
Well yes, we haven't really been able to update the recognizer we currently use much (we're allowed to use it but not to modify it) and it is getting a bit long in the tooth at this point... if it were accelerated for ARM processors it could perform a lot more detailed analysis and probably do a better job on messily-written characters. (this is why we're working on our very own Pleco-developed recognizer for PlecoDict 2.0)
We are working on making our system behave a little more like PenPower et al in the meantime, though. I'm not 100% sure if we'll offer the option to use a timer instead of the Recognize button in the final version, but we are working on an interface that would allow you to bring up the handwriting recognition palette in an unobtrusive "minimized" form much like PenPower. Actually I'm interested to hear that you find the timer aspect of it useful - most people seem to prefer having the button.
(I suppose we could even use the rainbow colors if we wanted to, actually
- wouldn't be very difficult to implement and we're already doing something else interesting with colors in the finished release)
It should still be possible to use PenPower in the finished version, it just might be a little awkward... we'll try to make it as easy as we can. (we've accomplished miracles before, by all rights there's no way our old Chinese text display system in Oxford 2.1 should have worked at all)
We are working on making our system behave a little more like PenPower et al in the meantime, though. I'm not 100% sure if we'll offer the option to use a timer instead of the Recognize button in the final version, but we are working on an interface that would allow you to bring up the handwriting recognition palette in an unobtrusive "minimized" form much like PenPower. Actually I'm interested to hear that you find the timer aspect of it useful - most people seem to prefer having the button.
(I suppose we could even use the rainbow colors if we wanted to, actually
- wouldn't be very difficult to implement and we're already doing something else interesting with colors in the finished release)It should still be possible to use PenPower in the finished version, it just might be a little awkward... we'll try to make it as easy as we can. (we've accomplished miracles before, by all rights there's no way our old Chinese text display system in Oxford 2.1 should have worked at all)
I really hope that you will make it a priority to make Penpower work with Plecodict, they are a perfect match.
When looking up a lot of characters, it really is a pain to use the built in recognizer. It might not sound of to much of a hassle to push the extra buttons. But if you, like me, look up hundreds of characters/words everyday that becomes quite tedious.
Penpower also makes it easy to change or delete a character. By pressing on a character in the input line, you get the option to change it to a ?similar? character or delete it. No need to bother with highlighting and then delete.
If you?re writing a complicated character or you just need to have another look and then write on, PP is also good. Simply by holding the stylus pressed against the screen it waits for you.
Also you save space on the screen by not having the recognizer filling up a ? of it, giving you more space for text. This way you can also have the list of words on the right side active all the time and not disappear when you bring up the recognizer.
PP comes bundled with handhelds sold in China, so a lot of people already have the program.
When looking up a lot of characters, it really is a pain to use the built in recognizer. It might not sound of to much of a hassle to push the extra buttons. But if you, like me, look up hundreds of characters/words everyday that becomes quite tedious.
Penpower also makes it easy to change or delete a character. By pressing on a character in the input line, you get the option to change it to a ?similar? character or delete it. No need to bother with highlighting and then delete.
If you?re writing a complicated character or you just need to have another look and then write on, PP is also good. Simply by holding the stylus pressed against the screen it waits for you.
Also you save space on the screen by not having the recognizer filling up a ? of it, giving you more space for text. This way you can also have the list of words on the right side active all the time and not disappear when you bring up the recognizer.
PP comes bundled with handhelds sold in China, so a lot of people already have the program.
Update on the PenPower situation: after a considerable amount of hacking (most of which we ultimately had to throw out) we've managed to get PenPower and CJKOS working with PlecoDict - Dr. Eye is still a problem, but my Tungsten T3 is quite happily taking character input from PenPower and within a few days we should have that functionality available for all of you. Same goes for CJKOS and other external Chinese text input systems, pretty much any of them should work in this updated release.
One caveat, though, is that this PenPower compatibility has to be enabled in a special preference setting, and enabling it makes traditional/simplified switching a bit awkward - for example, in the current version if you've configured it for traditional character Big5 input but copy simplified-character text to the Input Field, it won't work (or at least won't work very well). We're working on making this a little smoother in the finished version, though it may never be completely seamless. Also, our software uses CJKOS or ChOS or whichever Chinese OS you've installed to draw characters in the input field, so the font may be different from the one used in the definition (though I believe most of the Palm Chinese OS'es use the standard/free Beijing and Taipei fonts and those should be available soon for PlecoDict as well).
Anyway, all you PenPower fans can breathe easy now
One caveat, though, is that this PenPower compatibility has to be enabled in a special preference setting, and enabling it makes traditional/simplified switching a bit awkward - for example, in the current version if you've configured it for traditional character Big5 input but copy simplified-character text to the Input Field, it won't work (or at least won't work very well). We're working on making this a little smoother in the finished version, though it may never be completely seamless. Also, our software uses CJKOS or ChOS or whichever Chinese OS you've installed to draw characters in the input field, so the font may be different from the one used in the definition (though I believe most of the Palm Chinese OS'es use the standard/free Beijing and Taipei fonts and those should be available soon for PlecoDict as well).
Anyway, all you PenPower fans can breathe easy now
What happened to the "penpower/CJKOS update" that was due this week or is it next week :|
By the way...
I some times write numerous characters in the input field in cases where I have a sentence where i can't figure out where words begin or end. With the OX this worked well, but with PlecoDict I can't make it work. If I write numerous characters and then delete from the left I'll have to delete all the way the last characters for it to show up. Will this change with an update later on?
(hope I'm being clear enough :? )
By the way...
I some times write numerous characters in the input field in cases where I have a sentence where i can't figure out where words begin or end. With the OX this worked well, but with PlecoDict I can't make it work. If I write numerous characters and then delete from the left I'll have to delete all the way the last characters for it to show up. Will this change with an update later on?
(hope I'm being clear enough :? )
Very soon, there was a bug that delayed it a bit: PenPower input was working, but the character tapping feature wasn't (which made PenPower useless for anyone without perfect handwriting). We finally traced this back to a bug in PenPower which we've now worked around, and as soon as we polish up a couple of other things the update will be ready to download.
And that input field problem will definitely be fixed in a future update, yes.
And that input field problem will definitely be fixed in a future update, yes.