Feature Suggestions

[mikelove]

radioman - we certainly can clean up the audio files eventually (background noise reduction in the female files would be another big one, along with shortening the silences), but for 2.0 we're just trying to get rid of most of the glaring inaccuracies rather than getting everything to sound perfect. The syllable-by-syllable feature as I've said before was really just meant to keep people from thinking that the audio feature is broken / doesn't work because they're not hearing any audio for a particular word (just as we've now added UniHan built-in so that people stop thinking the handwriting recognizer is defective because when they accidentally tap on a really rare character the dictionary doesn't have an entry for it) - if we wanted to do a proper text-to-speech system that would take a lot more work (and would probably require several recordings of each syllable/tone combination in order to capture different lengths, pitches halfway between mid/high, etc).

 

[radioman]

MIke,

Sorry for any confusion. For me, the audio feature as it stands now is still very useful.

My comments were just general comments relative to some thoughts I had on new features, and were really not intended to be related to the other discussions relative to cleanup, other performance issues, etc.

radioman - we certainly can clean up the audio files eventually (background noise reduction in the female files would be another big one, along with shortening the silences), but for 2.0 we're just trying to get rid of most of the glaring inaccuracies rather than getting everything to sound perfect. The syllable-by-syllable feature as I've said before was really just meant to keep people from thinking that the audio feature is broken / doesn't work because they're not hearing any audio for a particular word (just as we've now added UniHan built-in so that people stop thinking the handwriting recognizer is defective because when they accidentally tap on a really rare character the dictionary doesn't have an entry for it) - if we wanted to do a proper text-to-speech system that would take a lot more work (and would probably require several recordings of each syllable/tone combination in order to capture different lengths, pitches halfway between mid/high, etc).

 

[stephanhodges]

I've been traveling, so out of touch. I might have even made this before...

When running flashcard sessions, I really need to use the card count limits, because I need to review missed cards within a shorter period of time, or all is "lost", as it were.

However, many of the test scenarios do not allow limiting the card count in a single session. For example, looking at definitions (to recall the hanzi and pinyin) does not allow setting, say, to 30 cards. Instead, it insists on 235, for example, if I review the first quarter of my comprehensive course.

I don't understand why there would be a need to do all cards in one session, especially with the inability to do anything else within the flashcard system while an outstanding review session has been saved.

 

[mikelove]

Every test type allows you to limit the number of cards; the thing that causes that setting to disappear is setting Card Selection to Repetition-spaced, since then Pleco shows you however many cards are due for repetition-spaced study. But if you change it to Random or Frequency adjusted you can certainly select a smaller number of cards. We considered keeping that option for repetition-spaced sessions too but decided against it, since that system doesn't really work well if you let cards pile up rather than going through all of the ones that you have due for study each day.

 

[Tony]

There are 2 features I'd love to see if they wouldn't be too tough to add.

1. When I start a flashcard session with, say 100 cards, I have every intention of going the whole way through. Unfortunately, sometimes it doesn't work out that well. I'd love to have a button within the flashcards that ends the session without canceling everything I've done so far. It doesn't seem like the cancel button works the way I have in mind, does it?

2. More importantly, when I am doing flashcards, I'll sometimes click on the information for a character and then click the tab with compound words. This is great information. I'd like to be able to click on those entries and choose to add them to flashcards (with the default definition). It looks like I need to view the entry in order to do that, but if I could have "add to flashcards" as an option on the click/hold menu, that would be great.

Thanks for the product--it's making my study of Chinese a lot easier than I feared it would be when I picked it up again after 10 years off.

Tony

 

[mikelove]

On #1, the cancel button gives you the option to save the session to come back to later - is that not what you're looking for? Canceling without saving the session will still save the results of the test so far, those aren't affected by the session exiting (they're saved out as soon as you mark the card correct / incorrect).

On #2 we've gotten a couple of requests to expand the functionality in that Compounds screen (along with making it faster) - there should definitely be some more features there in 2.1, probably even an entire Popup Definition screen which would let you add to flashcards / play audio / etc.

 

[koreth]

When you go to a word from the Compounds tab of the Char Info dialog, it would be great if that word was filled into the input field. Right now it's a bit of a hassle to look at a word in a different dictionary (since switching dictionaries causes PD2 to forget which word you were viewing and instead it looks up whatever is in the input field.)

 

[mikelove]

You can put the current headword into the Input Field by tapping on the Copy to Input button (make sure no other text is selected first) - doing it automatically would be nice, but there are a whole bunch of different search settings we'd have to test / optimize that with so it would be decidedly non-trivial to get it working reliably for everyone.

 

[Tony]

On #1, the cancel button gives you the option to save the session to come back to later - is that not what you're looking for? Canceling without saving the session will still save the results of the test so far, those aren't affected by the session exiting (they're saved out as soon as you mark the card correct / incorrect).

On #2 we've gotten a couple of requests to expand the functionality in that Compounds screen (along with making it faster) - there should definitely be some more features there in 2.1, probably even an entire Popup Definition screen which would let you add to flashcards / play audio / etc.

On #1, that's not quite what I'm looking for--more of an "end session" rather than "pick it up again later at the same spot". Although I like continuing sometimes, I also like the thought of getting overall statistics and having scores adjusted for the cards I've finished (especially when I have it set to come back to the cards I'm getting wrong). #1 isn't a big deal in any event, just a feature I'd like.

#2 is the more important one, and I'm glad to hear that you're making those tweaks.

Thanks again!

 

[anchan42]

Are there any possibility of some english to english dictionary?

 

[hairyleprechaun]

Hello Mike,

I know I have mentioned it before, but here it is again in different words.

I would frequently use an English - English dictionary too. I can't tell you how many times while using Pleco that I want or need to look up the EXACT definition of an English word. A comprehensive English - English dictionary would definitely be a great compliment to Pleco, helping it to be an even better tool/study aid than the great tool/study aid it already is.

Since I am wishing, I will add that a thesaurus would be a great compliment as well.

Darrol

 

[ipsi]

I know I'd like to see an E->E dictionary, for the rare word I don't know, or when I want to figure out the difference between two words I do know. A thesaurus would be nice (though I'm not sure how much use I would get out of it), and could provide an interesting test mode, if you could find reason to program it: Multi-choice test, show thesaurus headword, provide a list of words, only one of which has the same meaning as the headword. Or allow users to select any of them, and mark them correct only if they select the exact subset of possible answers that has the same meaning as the headword, for example.

A Chinese -> Chinese thesaurus, if one exists, would probably be a better short-term choice though .

 

[hairyleprechaun]

Yeah, I agree with the Chinese - Chinese thesaurus, I have wanted one for a while and have even asked Mike about it on the forums (as well as a few other members) but my understanding is that they don't make them.

 

[stephanhodges]

Are there not several "almost thesaurus" for Chinese? Several titles call them "near synonyms". I have 2 or 3 in hard bound. The biggest that I have (and best) is called "1700 Groups of Frequently Used Chinese Synonyms" ISBN 978-7-5619-1265-2 “1700 対近义词语用法对比”

 

[stephanhodges]

Probably already submitted (by someone), but ..

When I "manage flashcards" from the flashcard screen, it would help to have the hardware buttons able to scroll up/down in the list. The scroll bar is pretty small. I'd also like to be able to use a button to "enter" on a single line, to go to "info (I) mode".

 

[stephanhodges]

In the advanced flashcard Settings, how about changing "loop" to be a number from 0 - 9 (or more), instead of a binary yes/no. I want to loop, but sometimes I just get stuck, and don't want to say I know a word, but still want to end the session cleanly.

Also, what happens to the score if you loop 5 times, for example, always saying you don't know it?

 

[koreth]

Wow! “1700 対近义词语用法对比” would be an amazing resource to have in PlecoDict. I constantly bother my Chinese-speaking friends asking stuff like "What's the difference between '将来' and '未来?'" The added dictionaries in PD2 are already a big help in that area but this sounds even better.

I'm going to go buy a copy of that in print form right now, but having it in PD would be far more convenient.

 

[hairyleprechaun]

stephanhodges: Thanks for the info. I am going to get it right now as well. I am always looking for synonyms for Chinese words. And, a dictionary just doesn't do that very well. Admittedly the situation has improved a little with the addition of the Chinese - Chinese Standard Dictionary of Modern Chinese (现代汉语规范词典).

 

[estudiando]

I've bought the 1700 Groups of Frequently Used Chinese Synonyms and the other books in the series from dang dang (it took a while to get to the US). If they are available in electronic form, it would be excellent.

 

[mikelove]

Tony - doesn't that happen if you click No to the save session prompt when you exit a session? It should still bring up that statistics screen, and the scores are definitely still adjusted for cards you've finished.

Everyone else - Interesting-looking thesaurus, but unfortunately it's from BLCU Press and thus far they haven't been interested in working with us. (if anybody finds something similar from FLTRP, CRUP or Tuttle do let us know)

E-E I agree is a good idea, but definitely something well after 2.0 since those data conversion projects always take twice as long as we think they're going to.