Outlier Dictionary of Chinese Characters
- Thread starter mikelove
- Start date
Looks like an update just went out. (18/07/02).
John Renfroe
进士
Yup!
We sent the data to Pleco for the next release a few days ago, and we've finished testing and it was released last night (Asia time)! Our process has gotten much, much better—there were only a few errors to fix this time around.
In this update, there are 500 new completed entries! That is, we now have completed Essentials Edition entries for the most frequently used 1250 characters + about 300 semantic components, with some overlap between those two categories, for a total of just over 1500 completed entries.
We'll be releasing another update within a month with another 250 completed entries, meaning the most frequently used 1500 characters will all have full entries in the Essentials Edition! The current version has the most common 750 completed, so that's double the current amount!
Shortly after that, we're going to do an update with a few hundred new Expert entries. The current version of the Expert Edition only has 38 Expert entries, so that will be a massive update for those of you who have the Expert Edition.
As I've said before, we've made some huge improvements to our development process over the past few months which will allow us to develop the dictionary much more quickly than we could before, so we'll (finally!) be able to start doing more frequent updates.
As always, get in touch if you have any questions!
We sent the data to Pleco for the next release a few days ago, and we've finished testing and it was released last night (Asia time)! Our process has gotten much, much better—there were only a few errors to fix this time around.
In this update, there are 500 new completed entries! That is, we now have completed Essentials Edition entries for the most frequently used 1250 characters + about 300 semantic components, with some overlap between those two categories, for a total of just over 1500 completed entries.
We'll be releasing another update within a month with another 250 completed entries, meaning the most frequently used 1500 characters will all have full entries in the Essentials Edition! The current version has the most common 750 completed, so that's double the current amount!
Shortly after that, we're going to do an update with a few hundred new Expert entries. The current version of the Expert Edition only has 38 Expert entries, so that will be a massive update for those of you who have the Expert Edition.
As I've said before, we've made some huge improvements to our development process over the past few months which will allow us to develop the dictionary much more quickly than we could before, so we'll (finally!) be able to start doing more frequent updates.
As always, get in touch if you have any questions!
John Renfroe
进士
Thanks for pointing that out! I've fixed it in our database now, so it should be fixed in the next update.
Congratulations, John and team! This is fantastic news. And this will directly help my study as I run into characters without Outlier entries often, and I miss the info you guys provide when that happens. I’m also looking forward to potentially purchasing the Expert edition once that is further along.
rizen suha
状元
great, thanks! request: include support for zhuyin "everywhere". i think pleco should be able to identify and convert pinyin automatically in your "plain text". alternatively outlier could mark up pinyin as such for pleco to convert.
Regarding the difference between form components and meaning components, in many characters a component could be both, for example in 明, 日 is a meaning component while 月 is a form component. Why is that? Aren't both components form and meaning components, how do you assign the roles in a case like this?
Ash
进士
1. Yes, sometimes it doesn't matter whether it's a form or meaning component. That is because for some components, the meanings expressed by form and by meaning are the same. Like 人, 火, etc. But it does matter a lot in cases like 大, 又, etc.
2. In the case of 明, it has to do with the evolution of that character. 明 was originally written 朙. At the time of creation, 月 was a form component. Later, 囧 turned into 日. Since 日 still makes sense for "bright," I don't call it corruption. At the time this change was completed, 日 had already stopped looking like the sun, so I call it a meaning component, since it's not getting its meaning via any kind of pictorial quality.
Hope that helps!
I believe 土、足、路 where the big ones from the beginning - with expert data in the demo. Not sure if there are more prime examples now though.
Ash
进士
Weird. I thought I'd answered this! It's hard to show off everything in a single entry, which is why the demo has 20 characters (@ACardiganAndAFrown pointed out 3 of the demo entries). If you want to show stuff about Old Chinese phonology, probably the Expert entry for 藍. For paleography, either Expert entry for 造 or 前. For pedagogy, basically any Essentials entry. The online demo actually shows system level stuff for 立, 各 and 尚, though that stuff isn't in the dictionary yet. We'll start adding after we have 2000 completed Essentials entries.
Ash
进士
No worries! I looked for an answer by me on this question and couldn't find one, yet I feel some sense of deja vu. Probably something I ate!
The new updates, 7/31(?), update on download but then reappear in the updated list.
JD
状元
I’m seeing the same behavior. They download, verify, install, then reappear on the list.