iPhone Feature Requests

[Entropy]

So what did you mean by auto-improving?

Something like Skritter or PopupChinese, where after you draw the stroke (or something reasonably close to it) the software morphs / changes your stroke into the correct one; it "feels" great, almost seductive in a way, but I'm still trying to figure out whether it's actually a good or a bad thing for one's character retention.

Ah, I haven't seen that. I could see it being useful if you were trying to write something out for someone to read, but not as a learning tool.

 

[mikeo]

Supplemental Searches from Reader

It's quite likely that this has been suggested before, so advance apologies if this repeats earlier posts.

It would be nice to be able (particularly in Reader) to search for a selected character phrase on the web. Particularly to see other usages of common idioms, or regional variants of characters, etc. -- a generalized Google web search, a search against Twitter/facebook/wiki/whatever. The dictionaries will inevitably be the reference point, but for current usage nothing can compare with the web.

Of course this is do-able now, with some cutting and pasting, but if it were integrated into the Reader popup (and maybe also the dictionary search), it could be much more accessible.

 

[jiacheng]

Previously I had a suggestion to add a text widget for notes within a flashcard session, similar to a the sketch pad. One idea was to do a transparent overlay similar to the sketch pad. Another idea is to have an editable section below the flashcard itself. If the content of the flashcard is large, then you could scroll down to view/edit it.

 

[mikelove]

It would be nice to be able (particularly in Reader) to search for a selected character phrase on the web. Particularly to see other usages of common idioms, or regional variants of characters, etc. -- a generalized Google web search, a search against Twitter/facebook/wiki/whatever. The dictionaries will inevitably be the reference point, but for current usage nothing can compare with the web.

I'm not wild about web integration like this in general (as discussed in another thread), but this does seem fairly mild, at least if we left it totally hidden by default but added an option to add that command to the toolbar when highlighting strings of text - something to consider at least. Thanks.

Previously I had a suggestion to add a text widget for notes within a flashcard session, similar to a the sketch pad. One idea was to do a transparent overlay similar to the sketch pad. Another idea is to have an editable section below the flashcard itself. If the content of the flashcard is large, then you could scroll down to view/edit it.

LOT of work to make that UI work smoothly - I'm also not quite sure how we'd go about advertising the presence of that note, seems like we're almost better off having, say, a little note icon that turns from gray to black when there's a note you can tap to access.

 

[mikeo]

It would be nice to be able (particularly in Reader) to search for a selected character phrase on the web. Particularly to see other usages of common idioms, or regional variants of characters, etc. -- a generalized Google web search, a search against Twitter/facebook/wiki/whatever. The dictionaries will inevitably be the reference point, but for current usage nothing can compare with the web.

I'm not wild about web integration like this in general (as discussed in another thread), but this does seem fairly mild, at least if we left it totally hidden by default but added an option to add that command to the toolbar when highlighting strings of text - something to consider at least. Thanks.

Would like to understand your objections to "web integration". Certainly there are a lot of examples of how irrelevant to the task this kind of "integration" can be. You mentioned there was a discussion in another thread -- my search http://www.plecoforums.com/search.p...posts&sk=t&sd=d&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search for "web integration" didn't find the right thread - I'd appreciate if you or anyone else in the forum could point me there.

Still, the language is changing fast, and when reading some current books, particularly with slang, it's not unusual to find the dictionaries either don't have the phrase at all, or are sometimes out of date as to its meaning, and this is where a lookup of selected text would be useful, since a lot of the meaning and usage can be inferred from examples.

 

[jiacheng]

Maybe double tapping or holding the 字 key could make it switch to a text notes mode from an overlay mode. You could display the Text
box along alongside the flashcard similar to the way a free response test, or tapping it could cycle between the flashcard and the notes page.

While I like the finger driven interface, it makes it harder to squeeze more things onto the real estate of the sketch pad. If the card you are testing on has 6 characters or more, there's no way you can sketch that into a tiny box. Even 3-4 can be difficult. The text overlay idea was part of my brainstorming to find more ways of squeezing more onto the real estate of the screen. One way to handle it is if the overlay were divided into 9 segments, tap on one, write the character, then have some kind quick way to zoom out or advance to the next segment. This can kinda sorta be done with the 3 finger double tap to zoom, but I find that writing is slow and inefficient. I don't wanna spend 5 minutes on just one flashcard.

Another way might to be to somehow make the overlay expandable and scrollable. Each time you write a character, you can drag it to the left and write another one. When you're finished, you can zoom out and see the whole thing.

 

[numble]

It would be nice to be able (particularly in Reader) to search for a selected character phrase on the web. Particularly to see other usages of common idioms, or regional variants of characters, etc. -- a generalized Google web search, a search against Twitter/facebook/wiki/whatever. The dictionaries will inevitably be the reference point, but for current usage nothing can compare with the web.

I'm not wild about web integration like this in general (as discussed in another thread), but this does seem fairly mild, at least if we left it totally hidden by default but added an option to add that command to the toolbar when highlighting strings of text - something to consider at least. Thanks.

Would like to understand your objections to "web integration". Certainly there are a lot of examples of how irrelevant to the task this kind of "integration" can be. You mentioned there was a discussion in another thread -- my search http://www.plecoforums.com/search.p...posts&sk=t&sd=d&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search for "web integration" didn't find the right thread - I'd appreciate if you or anyone else in the forum could point me there.

Still, the language is changing fast, and when reading some current books, particularly with slang, it's not unusual to find the dictionaries either don't have the phrase at all, or are sometimes out of date as to its meaning, and this is where a lookup of selected text would be useful, since a lot of the meaning and usage can be inferred from examples.

viewtopic.php?f=17&t=2097&start=315#p19617

Here was the response to my idea on a different track--looking up words in web encyclopedias like Baidu Baike, Wikipedia or Hudong.

Your idea is entirely different, but it makes me think that a jukuu.com search would be useful if your idea takes off. I used to use that as a reference when adding new words to CC-CEDICT, back when I was working on that project and had to look up a lot of words that often weren't found in dictionaries.

 

[andrewjr8]

Horizontal flashcards please

 

[andrewjr8]

And phrases and sentences for flash cards as well! 谢谢

 

[mikelove]

Still, the language is changing fast, and when reading some current books, particularly with slang, it's not unusual to find the dictionaries either don't have the phrase at all, or are sometimes out of date as to its meaning, and this is where a lookup of selected text would be useful, since a lot of the meaning and usage can be inferred from examples.

Would probably also help matters if we stopped waiting so darn long between CC-CEDICT updates But yes, I can see how web search integration might help a bit in that case, though I'm still not very happy about the UI / network-dependence consequences.

While I like the finger driven interface, it makes it harder to squeeze more things onto the real estate of the sketch pad. If the card you are testing on has 6 characters or more, there's no way you can sketch that into a tiny box. Even 3-4 can be difficult. The text overlay idea was part of my brainstorming to find more ways of squeezing more onto the real estate of the screen. One way to handle it is if the overlay were divided into 9 segments, tap on one, write the character, then have some kind quick way to zoom out or advance to the next segment. This can kinda sorta be done with the 3 finger double tap to zoom, but I find that writing is slow and inefficient. I don't wanna spend 5 minutes on just one flashcard.

That makes sense - I think I prefer a free zoom / pan feature over something with extra taps to navigate between multiple boxes, though (per your later suggestion), since the characters don't need to be as big when you're checking the results; tricky thing would be differentiating between a two-finger tap-to-clear and a two-finger pinch-zoom.

Horizontal flashcards please

You mean that you want the characters to appear top-to-bottom? How would this work for the Pinyin / definitions?

And phrases and sentences for flash cards as well! 谢谢

Already supported, just hidden to avoid accidental cheating and keep things more readable - Flashcard Testing / More Settings / Display / Definition sections / No Xrefs (or Show All).

 

[zengeeker]

I'm a student of Chinese medicine and I use Pleco a lot to look up words in different classical texts. Besides a specialized dictionary for classical chinese and chinese medicine, the features I'd love to see are the entries from the Shuo Wen Jie Zi dictionary (ideally translated, but not necessary), oracle bone images if it exists (perhaps a partnership with Richard Sears, responsible for http://www.chineseetymology.org), and really any other etymological information that it would be possible to include. For now, I'll just have to satisfy myself with at least being able to see the radicals broken down.

 

[andrewjr8]

You mean that you want the characters to appear top-to-bottom? How would this work for the Pinyin / definitions?

After further examination I think I would like to rephrase my request. I would like to see horizontal orientation available for fill-in-the-blank flashcard mode, sorry for the confusion.

Already supported, just hidden to avoid accidental cheating and keep things more readable - Flashcard Testing / More Settings / Display / Definition sections / No Xrefs (or Show All).

Thanks!

 

[mikeo]

I'm not wild about web integration like this in general (as discussed in another thread), but this does seem fairly mild, at least if we left it totally hidden by default but added an option to add that command to the toolbar when highlighting strings of text - something to consider at least. Thanks.

Would like to understand your objections to "web integration". Certainly there are a lot of examples of how irrelevant to the task this kind of "integration" can be. You mentioned there was a discussion in another thread -- my search http://www.plecoforums.com/search.p...posts&sk=t&sd=d&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search for "web integration" didn't find the right thread - I'd appreciate if you or anyone else in the forum could point me there.

Still, the language is changing fast, and when reading some current books, particularly with slang, it's not unusual to find the dictionaries either don't have the phrase at all, or are sometimes out of date as to its meaning, and this is where a lookup of selected text would be useful, since a lot of the meaning and usage can be inferred from examples.

http://plecoforums.com/viewtopic.php?f= ... 315#p19617

Here was the response to my idea on a different track--looking up words in web encyclopedias like Baidu Baike, Wikipedia or Hudong.

Your idea is entirely different, but it makes me think that a jukuu.com search would be useful if your idea takes off. I used to use that as a reference when adding new words to CC-CEDICT, back when I was working on that project and had to look up a lot of words that often weren't found in dictionaries.

Thanks for that reference, numble!　What I was suggesting wasn't，　ａｓ　ｙｏｕ　ｎｏｔｅ，　 　online dictionary lookup, whatever the merits of that idea.

It was rather ｓｅａｒｃｈｉｎｇ　ｆｏｒ　 "usage" ｅｘａｍｐｌｅｓ　ｏｆ　ａ　ｓｅｌｅｃｔｅｄ　ｐｈｒａｓｅ　- doing a dead-on search against fulltext-type sources for an occurａnce of the phrase. For something very slangy or webby　ｏｒ　ｔｅｃｈｎｉｃａｌ　ｏｒ　ａｎ　ａｃｒｏｎｙｍｎ, Twitter (though, last time Iｌｏｏｋｅｄ　ａｂｏｕｔ　２　ｙｅａｒｓ　ａｇｏ　Ｔｗｉｔｔｅｒ　ｓｕｐｐｏｒｅｄ　Ｊａｐａｎｅｓｅ　ｂｕｔ　ｎｏｔ　ＣＨｉｎｅｓｅ　－　ｈｏｐｅｆｕｌｌｙ　ｔｈｉｓ　ｈａｓ　ｃｈａｎｇｅｄ　ｎｏｗ）　or a Google blogsearch would be a good corpus to search against. For other things, maybe the chinese version on wikipedia would be good.　Ｙｏｕ＇ｄ　ｐｒｏｂａｂｌｙ　ｗａｎｔ　ｔｈｅ　ａｂｉｌｉｔｙ　ｔｏ　ｓｐｅｃｉｆｙ　ａ　ｓｅｔ　ｏｆ　ｓｏｕｒｃｅｓ　ａｇａｉｎｓｔ　ｗｈｉｃｈ　ｔｏ　ｓｅａｒｃｈ，　ｏｒ　ｓｅａｒｃｈ　ｅｎｇｉｎｅｓ　ｔｏ　ｕｓｅ．　

 

[mikeo]

Still, the language is changing fast, and when reading some current books, particularly with slang, it's not unusual to find the dictionaries either don't have the phrase at all, or are sometimes out of date as to its meaning, and this is where a lookup of selected text would be useful, since a lot of the meaning and usage can be inferred from examples.

Would probably also help matters if we stopped waiting so darn long between CC-CEDICT updates But yes, I can see how web search integration might help a bit in that case, though I'm still not very happy about the UI / network-dependence consequences.

Ｎｏ　ｑｕｅｓｔｉｏｎ　ｔｈａｔ　ｉｆ　ｙｏｕ　ｕｓｅ　ａｎ　ｅｘｔｅｒｎａｌ　ＡＰI there's a real risk that the feature will stop working or stop working right because of some change out of your control. If it's an optional feature that the user understands depends on the external source being unchanging in its interface (i.e., if it breaks, it may not be fixable), then at least from my point of view that's a perfectly reasonable tradeoff. Would there be no way to ｐｒｏｔｅｃｔ　ｔｈｅ　ＵＩ　ｆｒｏｍ　ｐｏｓｓｉｂｌｅ　ｎｅｔｗｏｒｋ　ｄｅｐｅｎｄｅｎｃｉｅｓ？

 

[mikeo]

I've been using Reader a lot lately, and there's one possible additional feature that would be useful. Haven't seen it mentioned yet but can't claim to have read all the posts, so sorry if this is a repetition.

Often there are phrases one or more of whose component parts may or may not be in any of the dictionaries (or the dictionary entry is offbase, incorrect, or out of date), but whose complete phrasal meaning or connotation isn't quite clear. I'd like to be able to copy-paste these phrases into a file or flashcard for future reference ( checking with a native speaker about their connotations, etc.), so that when I'm done reading the document I have batched them all into one place.

Bookmarks are pretty crude for this purpose because they only get me to the page, not to the phrase itself. And there's no way to select characters in Reader outside of dictionary lookup (is there?)

Of course I can also just write them down (what I'm doing now), but if there was a way to send any selected text to a file or (not quite as good) to a flashcard category, that would save time.

I'm thinking a button (appearing optionally based on a setting) which would take text selected by the "extension arrows" and simply copy it to a file of my choosing.

Also, I can't find any easy way to create a new flashcard inside reader - it should be as easy as selecting text , tapping a button, and filling in the English translation (presumably Pleco could handle filling in the pinyin automatically, by character lookup - the user always has the option of changing the tones where this automatic lookup results in the wrong tones (or even the wrong sounds for 多音字。 Is this something that could be easily added (or does it already exist?)?

 

[mikelove]

I'm a student of Chinese medicine and I use Pleco a lot to look up words in different classical texts. Besides a specialized dictionary for classical chinese and chinese medicine, the features I'd love to see are the entries from the Shuo Wen Jie Zi dictionary (ideally translated, but not necessary), oracle bone images if it exists (perhaps a partnership with Richard Sears, responsible for http://www.chineseetymology.org), and really any other etymological information that it would be possible to include. For now, I'll just have to satisfy myself with at least being able to see the radicals broken down.

I wrote Richard Sears and never got a reply - seems like he's not interested in licensing out his data. Shuowen Jiezi support might be possible in a future release, but compiling it would probably have to be a community effort since it's unlikely it could bring in much money.

After further examination I think I would like to rephrase my request. I would like to see horizontal orientation available for fill-in-the-blank flashcard mode, sorry for the confusion.

Interesting... would this be with the display in landscape orientation? What do you see as the benefits of this over the way it works now? (ergonomically better or do you just like the look?)

Ｙｏｕ＇ｄ　ｐｒｏｂａｂｌｙ　ｗａｎｔ　ｔｈｅ　ａｂｉｌｉｔｙ　ｔｏ　ｓｐｅｃｉｆｙ　ａ　ｓｅｔ　ｏｆ　ｓｏｕｒｃｅｓ　ａｇａｉｎｓｔ　ｗｈｉｃｈ　ｔｏ　ｓｅａｒｃｈ，　ｏｒ　ｓｅａｒｃｈ　ｅｎｇｉｎｅｓ　ｔｏ　ｕｓｅ．　

Yeah, I think this would have to be user-configurable if we supported it - don't want to limit people to a small set of sources.

Would there be no way to ｐｒｏｔｅｃｔ　ｔｈｅ　ＵＩ　ｆｒｏｍ　ｐｏｓｓｉｂｌｅ　ｎｅｔｗｏｒｋ　ｄｅｐｅｎｄｅｎｃｉｅｓ？

Sure, combination of error messages and background threads - it's more a matter of not wanting to put this front-and-center since it could break / use up expensive international bandwidth very easily, it would have to be an off-by-default option like so many others.

Also, I can't find any easy way to create a new flashcard inside reader - it should be as easy as selecting text , tapping a button, and filling in the English translation (presumably Pleco could handle filling in the pinyin automatically, by character lookup - the user always has the option of changing the tones where this automatic lookup results in the wrong tones (or even the wrong sounds for 多音字。 Is this something that could be easily added (or does it already exist?)?

Not supported yet (except in OCR, and that's not out publicly yet) but it could certainly appear in a future release.

 

[jacky89]

I would like to request that voice works for the chinese characters in the definitions. For example, if I search an English word such as "Before", there will be many different chinese definitions. Currently, if I press on any of the characters in the definitions, a sub dictionary pops up for the highlighted characters. However, there is no voice button to speak these characters. I would have to manually search each character to know what they sound like, which takes a lot of time. Please add a voice button to speak the characters in the definition. Thanks.

 

[mikelove]

I would like to request that voice works for the chinese characters in the definitions. For example, if I search an English word such as "Before", there will be many different chinese definitions. Currently, if I press on any of the characters in the definitions, a sub dictionary pops up for the highlighted characters. However, there is no voice button to speak these characters. I would have to manually search each character to know what they sound like, which takes a lot of time. Please add a voice button to speak the characters in the definition. Thanks.

Already supported, but you have to enable it in Settings since it makes the toolbar somewhat crowded; Settings / General / Popup Reader / Show audio button. You can also tap on the > button to bring up the selected text in a separate screen (from which you can then play the audio with one more button tap).

 

[andrewjr8]

After further examination I think I would like to rephrase my request. I would like to see horizontal orientation available for fill-in-the-blank flashcard mode, sorry for the confusion.

Interesting... would this be with the display in landscape orientation? What do you see as the benefits of this over the way it works now? (ergonomically better or do you just like the look?)

Yeah I think it would feel better/more ergonomic (for me at least). I kept wanting to shift it horizontal to make it feel rite, it might be because I have large hands I don't know :? . Most of the other flash-card modes have horizontal orientation I just thought it was a weird exception. I would just be useful to have the option to rotate it if we could.

Thanks for taking my questions

 

[mikelove]

Yeah I think it would feel better/more ergonomic (for me at least). I kept wanting to shift it horizontal to make it feel rite, it might be because I have large hands I don't know . Most of the other flash-card modes have horizontal orientation I just thought it was a weird exception. I would just be useful to have the option to rotate it if we could.

It's basically because of the keyboard - there's not really a good way to squeeze everything into the area above the iPhone's landscape keyboard; for handwriting input it would be just fine, it's only keyboard input that's the problem.