INTERESTING FIND

[MALAILI]

Dear Sirs:

I have been using a yahoo widget called mandarin flashier cards to help me learn the characters and meaning(s).

Recently, I discovered that if I use their search function and look up a word, in the definition often there are several meanings. If you click on the meanings column, a list of the various meanings pops up and you can select one of the meanings which in turn creates its own search and gives you a list of other characters with the same meaning.

I thought this was quite interesting and that you might, want to know about it.

Their database is limited, but I have built my own list of words from the new words in my textbook, a little time consuming, but useful non the less.

All the best,

Ma lai li

 

[mikelove]

Thanks for the note on this - it is interesting, but it would be a little difficult to implement in Pleco without licensing another new dictionary. Something we're not necessarily that eager to do with 3 other new licenses already in the pipeline. (2 of which have a good chance of being announced along with Beta 3, though they won't be available until after the finished 2.0 is released)

 

[MALAILI]

DEAR MIKE,

I am not sure, but I think the widget uses one of the same dictionaries as you do. I know you are busy as .... now, so this could just be something to consider in the future.

 

[ipsi]

New Dictionaries? Hmm... Looks like I really need a job then.

Any hints as to what they're about? While I understand that you might not be able to give away specifics, are they aimed at Beginners (like Oxford), Advanced Learners (like Guifan), or are they specialist (unlike what you've got)? Put that way, my guess is they are specialist dictionaries .

Also, subscribing to the forums produces funny results with the emails. Not exactly sure how that's supposed to work...

 

[mikelove]

One expensive and very specialized one, to the point that I really would strongly discourage anyone not in that particular specialty from buying it (however great your love for Pleco), and two that fall somewhere in between beginner and advanced. We'd love to license a more firmly beginner-oriented dictionary like the Oxford Starter but we're not sure how good the prospects for one of those are - the lower the required skill level, the greater the potential market and hence the less inclined publishers are to freely hand out licenses.

 

[ipsi]

I'll probably pick them all up regardless as I'm the only person I know with PlecoDict, and when I'm showing it off to people, it's one thing to say "Oh yeah, and there's also this special dictionary for topic XYZ, not sure what it's like.", and quite another to say "Oh yeah, here's this special dictionary for topic XYZ. Why don't you have a play around?", assuming the person is interested in XYZ of course.

Agreed on the starter dictionaries, but have you tried pointing out that, by far, most of the materials available are for beginners? And thus being available for Pleco would help them differentiate themselves in the market? I'll have to wait and see before I comment on how interested I'll actually be in them (won't stop me from buying them, and providing they have examples, more are better).

 

[Rick31]

One expensive and very specialized one, to the point that I really would strongly discourage anyone not in that particular specialty from buying it (however great your love for Pleco

That had the opposite affect on me, I really want it now! Although, the 'very expensive' part gives me pause. I'm hoping this is a Chinese medical dictionary, as I can't think of any other specialty that has its own dictionary...that would just make me giddy :mrgreen:

 

[mikelove]

ipsi - well I'm hoping they might think that, been e-mailing a few publishers but no luck so far. There are some other ways we can improve our example sentence offerings without even having to license anything.

Rick31 - without actually confirming anything yet I will say that it's a title that's been discussed in this forum before :wink:

 

[ipsi]

Figures. You'd think they'd be less inclined to do it for more advanced dictionaries where there's a smaller market. While 500 people buying a beginner dictionary for Pleco might be only 1% of the beginner's market, 500 people buying an advanced dictionary for Pleco might be 50% of the market... And I'm never going to buy a paper dictionary as long as I've got a device that will run Pleco, as it's just so much more convenient, in every way.

That leaves Traditional Medical and Classical, to the best of my knowledge. And I believe that you've said before that in order to do a Classical one, you'd basically have to scan and OCR it yourselves, which would not exactly be cheap or easy. Of course, I could have missed one (I haven't read the entire archives, so it's quite possible).

 

[hairyleprechaun]

I am still inclined towards the thought that the more dictionaries available the better. Though I have already made a few guesses based on the available hints, I still can't wait for the announcement. Oh, and is Beta 3 still looking possible for coming out around Christmas?

 

[ipsi]

Announcement made here: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1157

Probably on 22nd December.

 

[hairyleprechaun]

Thanks ipsi, I actually ended up finding it right after posting my message.

 

[ipsi]

Fair enough. It's not like it's hard to find .

 

[mikelove]

OK, since the agreement is now signed: it is indeed a TCM dictionary. Though more of a medical encyclopedia in some sense, has about 6000 entries but they're all very long and detailed - the printed version weighs more than the 200,000-entry ABC.

 

[ipsi]

Good god. That's pretty hefty. What's it called? I'm assuming it will be available next year sometime? Unless you're quicker at converting dictionaries than I thought.

If the sales for this one are decent, are you likely to consider licensing other specialist dictionaries? While I'm not really in the market (yet), I'm sure others are.

 

[hairyleprechaun]

Alright Mike! Great job. For those of us interested in specialized dictionaries this is great news. And, for those who have been patiently waiting for a Traditional Chinese Medicine dictionary, well, they ought to be ecstatic.

Keep up the great work!

Darrol

 

[Rick31]

OK, since the agreement is now signed: it is indeed a TCM dictionary. Though more of a medical encyclopedia in some sense, has about 6000 entries but they're all very long and detailed - the printed version weighs more than the 200,000-entry ABC.

OK, I'm excited. But which one!?!?! I know all the ones in print, could be many that you are talking about...more details, please! Chinese-English? Chinese-Chinese? Title? Will it be ready only with 2.0? OK, I'll stop buggin'... :lol:

 

[mikelove]

Since nobody bothered searching the forums to find the one and only TCM title that I'd mentioned before: it's Wiseman & Feng's "Practical Dictionary of Chinese Medicine", C-E and also E-C actually though I'm not sure if we'll be able to get the indexing for the E-C part working, and will only be available for 2.0 (and not until a few months after that comes out).

 

[sfrrr]

Which one? Omigod, now I can't wait even more--or however one would say that. It can't be the Practical Dictionary? I've been eye-ing it forever, but, for me, it's too expensive for a printed book because I study whenever the mood strikes and there's no way I'm lugging around that thing. But, if, by any stretch of luck, it is the Practical, I'll be ecstatic.

Sandra

 

[mikelove]

It is the Practical Dictionary, I just said so. (since my earlier post said it was a dictionary that had been referenced before and that's the only one - sorry if that was a bit convoluted) Not exactly sure what we'll be charging for it yet, but it should be less than the $120-if-you-can-find-it-at-all printed version at least.