iOS 8
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Third party keyboards are now possible. Could make the handwriting add-on more integrated.
More APIs for cross-app communication too. There was one where Safari seemed to have a Bing translation plugin. A Pleco version of this would be awesome, removing the need for a clunky secondary browser.
More APIs for cross-app communication too. There was one where Safari seemed to have a Bing translation plugin. A Pleco version of this would be awesome, removing the need for a clunky secondary browser.
Actually quite a few new items with potential; the new WKWebView they alluded to opens up a lot of nice possibilities for further improvements to our web reader, for example. And there's certainly a great deal we can do with Extensibility, even if it doesn't appear to support the "Define" function. Also, lots of interesting possibilities with CloudKit for various sorts of user data sharing (could finally have a really nice / transparent flashcard list distribution system, e.g.). And the Mac integration is tempting too though I'm skeptical as to whether it'll work well right away. And we can probably phase out our own Dropbox API support now that Apple is providing built-in support for accessing files from multiple file-sharing services.
Beyond all that, though, this was also a pretty clear case of Apple giving developers a lot of new reasons *not* to be cross-platform; iCloud with the addition of CloudKit is starting to seem like it might be worth embracing more wholeheartedly (using Core Data instead of SQLite for data storage, e.g.), Swift saves a lot of time even relative to the already-more-efficient-than-anything-else-we-use Objective-C... I'm finding myself drawn to the once-inconceivable idea of developing some parts of Pleco on a platform-specific way that were previously done in shared C code; a big chunk of the new flashcard stuff, for example. (there's a reason Anki is written in Python) We may be reaching a point where it's more efficient to do some things separately in Swift and in Java than it is to do them one time in C for both platforms.
Beyond all that, though, this was also a pretty clear case of Apple giving developers a lot of new reasons *not* to be cross-platform; iCloud with the addition of CloudKit is starting to seem like it might be worth embracing more wholeheartedly (using Core Data instead of SQLite for data storage, e.g.), Swift saves a lot of time even relative to the already-more-efficient-than-anything-else-we-use Objective-C... I'm finding myself drawn to the once-inconceivable idea of developing some parts of Pleco on a platform-specific way that were previously done in shared C code; a big chunk of the new flashcard stuff, for example. (there's a reason Anki is written in Python) We may be reaching a point where it's more efficient to do some things separately in Swift and in Java than it is to do them one time in C for both platforms.
And there's certainly a great deal we can do with Extensibility, even if it doesn't appear to support the "Define" function.
I hope that this function will come soon. They allowed switching keyboard now so this idea doesn't seem too far fetched.
Is it possible to utilise any of the new api to somehow speed up the process of jumping into Pleco for word lookups from different apps?
We could potentially use it to pop up a document reader or OCR screen, yes. In theory we could even pop up an individual dictionary definition for a selected word, but that would only be useful if the app itself supported performing actions on the current text selection, which I don't believe is something that Apple's apps do by default.
Would love it if iOS 8 provides the opportunity to make the Handwriting recognizer available system wide.
Not possible to do that fullscreen, from what I can tell. So it would just be our algorithm in a normal-iOS-keyboard-sized keyboard and I'm not sure if that's something worth doing given that there'll probably be a dozen other Chinese handwriting replacement keyboards available more cheaply than ours on the day that iOS 8 launches.
Fair enough. Though I must admit I'm pretty disappointed with Apple's latest version of (iOS 7.1.1) Chinese Simplified handwriting recognizer. Terribly laggy and slow on my iPhone 4 (though Pleco's Hanwang has no issues) and on top of that the division between the drawing area and suggested characters is not only poorly defined but also overly sensitive, often causing me to select a suggested character in the middle of drawing a stroke.
This would be the coolest thing ever, just saying.
@hairyleprechaun - I agree the Apple one is troublesome, but it's likely other third-party recognizers will be much better behaved, and if the situation on Android is any sign several of them will be given away for free. So the question is simply whether we have anything to add to that market.
@Bendy-Ren - well we'll have to see if any other apps support that; would have to be explicitly added FWICT.
@Bendy-Ren - well we'll have to see if any other apps support that; would have to be explicitly added FWICT.
Hi,
Now that AirDrop is supported between compatible iOS/OS X devices, any thoughts to using it for Pleco file import/export? Pleco already provides a number of ways for importing/exporting files, so maybe it's not a top priority. And, it's obviously iOS/OS X specific.
Also now that I think about it, what about using AirDrop for iOS-to-iOS file transfer? (I recently had to do this between an iPad and iPhone). Pleco's already offers an iOS-to-iOS transfer option, so again maybe this wouldn't be a top priority. (And actually, I was transferring a flashcard list between the two devices, something that will be negated by fist class flashcard sync functionality).
Now that AirDrop is supported between compatible iOS/OS X devices, any thoughts to using it for Pleco file import/export? Pleco already provides a number of ways for importing/exporting files, so maybe it's not a top priority. And, it's obviously iOS/OS X specific.
Also now that I think about it, what about using AirDrop for iOS-to-iOS file transfer? (I recently had to do this between an iPad and iPhone). Pleco's already offers an iOS-to-iOS transfer option, so again maybe this wouldn't be a top priority. (And actually, I was transferring a flashcard list between the two devices, something that will be negated by fist class flashcard sync functionality).
I think AirDrop would just work, actually - haven't yet installed Yosemite to try it out but Pleco already registers itself as a handler for the relevant file types. And I believe it does work iOS-to-iOS even now.
How is flashcard sync not working for you now? (working to address several problems but I'd like to make sure yours are among them)
How is flashcard sync not working for you now? (working to address several problems but I'd like to make sure yours are among them)
Dear Mike,
From what I understand, the extension system could allow pleco to popup in safari and other app for translating chinese characters (the way peraperakun is doing on desktop webbrowser). Is that true ? The question was asked previously, but i did not understand clearly the answer...
If so, this would be such a killer feature !
thanks for all your wonderful work !
Christian
From what I understand, the extension system could allow pleco to popup in safari and other app for translating chinese characters (the way peraperakun is doing on desktop webbrowser). Is that true ? The question was asked previously, but i did not understand clearly the answer...
If so, this would be such a killer feature !
thanks for all your wonderful work !
Christian
Popping up right in Safari isn't really possible - no way we can see to invoke an action directly on a specific bit of text. What we would probably do instead is add our Web Reader as a 'share' action and then pop up a copy of the web page in that with tap-lookups enabled.