Pleco 4.0

[UsernameRequired]

(Knowing nothing of the complexity to implement it, or any UI guidelines) could the tab bar work like the current Favorites screen? i.e. allow the user to decide which items are on it and so quickly accessible?

Looking at the video above, I see "Add-ons" there, which while obviously very important, I don't use particularly frequently. Generally I prefer not seeing anything I'm not using at the time, so the way the Favorites screen currently works is great. Quick and unobtrusive.

 

[mikelove]

Possibly, the tricky thing is that each tab's UI is a bit different and so it would take some work to customize each tab to include / not include specific child items. (but we'll have to do some of that anyway for the sidebar on iPad)

But actually I think we're probably going to end up putting a link to Add-ons at the top of Settings instead (with a nice attractive "Upgrade to Pleco Plus" banner or some such) and separating the test / organize flashcard functions into two tabs, at least that's the way we're currently leaning. While they're both flashcard-related, there's a strong likelihood people will want to do both of them at the same time, whereas with for example Live OCR now being part of Reader we think it's much less likely somebody is going to want to be reading a document and live OCR'ing another document at the same time. We had originally been planning to have you just tap on the Flash button to toggle between testing and organizing, but that's not a standard gesture and nobody will know about / use it.

(also, honestly, after doing some testing with this it's a little too easy to jump into add-ons by accident; we obviously do want to sell stuff, but we don't want people to feel like if they use our app incorrectly they're going to be charged for something they didn't want, or else many of them will simply choose not to use our app at all)

 

[mikelove]

I should add that Organize is getting a bunch of nifty new functionality that makes it all the more useful as a primary tab:



(haven't converted the New Card / Category / Search buttons into floating ones yet, but we will)

 

[Shun]

Thanks for the sneak peek!

 

[Ng Oon-Ee]

Hi, happy CNY to mike and all.

I've set aside the funds (tidy sum in my country) to purchase the pleco bundle, just wanted to confirm if pleco 4.0 will be a free update for same functionality (I understand new functionality would be additional purchases, that's fair)? In particular I'm wondering if with the anki emulation et. al. what the difference is in flashcard functionality between purchasing a 3.0 bundle and waiting for 4.0 to release.

 

[mikelove]

To be honest I haven't decided about that yet.

In general since the point of Anki emulation is getting people to switch from Anki to Pleco there are strong business reasons to want to make that free / cheap / accessible to as many users as possible, but that doesn't automatically mean we will.

It's also quite possible that we'll raise prices when we launch 4.0 - another thing I've been considering is getting rid of standalone feature add-ons altogether and re-branding the Basic Bundle as "Pleco Plus" and the Professional Bundle as "Pleco Pro" or some such, possibly with software (and not just content) differences between those two options.

Basically I just don't know, I can't promise that you'll be no worse off by buying now but I also can't promise that you'll be no worse off by waiting. So all I can do is repeat my refrain from elsewhere on these forums that if you think the current version of Pleco is a good/worthwhile purchase for you as it stands now, you should buy it, and if not, you should wait - don't buy anything based on what's coming in 4.0 until 4.0 is actually out.

 

[Ng Oon-Ee]

To be honest I haven't decided about that yet.

In general since the point of Anki emulation is getting people to switch from Anki to Pleco there are strong business reasons to want to make that free / cheap / accessible to as many users as possible, but that doesn't automatically mean we will.

It's also quite possible that we'll raise prices when we launch 4.0 - another thing I've been considering is getting rid of standalone feature add-ons altogether and re-branding the Basic Bundle as "Pleco Plus" and the Professional Bundle as "Pleco Pro" or some such, possibly with software (and not just content) differences between those two options.

Basically I just don't know, I can't promise that you'll be no worse off by buying now but I also can't promise that you'll be no worse off by waiting. So all I can do is repeat my refrain from elsewhere on these forums that if you think the current version of Pleco is a good/worthwhile purchase for you as it stands now, you should buy it, and if not, you should wait - don't buy anything based on what's coming in 4.0 until 4.0 is actually out.

Thanks, that's non-committal (and I totally understand and respect that), but reading between the lines it does seem like I won't lose out TOO much if I do, if at all.

 

[mgoulding97]

It's also quite possible that we'll raise prices when we launch 4.0 - another thing I've been considering is getting rid of standalone feature add-ons altogether and re-branding the Basic Bundle as "Pleco Plus" and the Professional Bundle as "Pleco Pro" or some such, possibly with software (and not just content) differences between those two options.

This wouldn't affect dictionary purchases would it? I am considering getting the 现代汉语规范词典 and don't want to have to pay for it again once pleco 4.0 comes out.

By the way, is there a time frame for when 4.0 might be released? I know this thread has existed since 2017 so I don't know whether we are talking about a release being months away, or still another few years.

 

[mikelove]

This wouldn't affect dictionary purchases would it? I am considering getting the 现代汉语规范词典 and don't want to have to pay for it again once pleco 4.0 comes out.

No, we certainly don't plan to make people buy those again except possibly as optional paid upgrades to new editions.

By the way, is there a time frame for when 4.0 might be released? I know this thread has existed since 2017 so I don't know whether we are talking about a release being months away, or still another few years.

Hopefully more like the former but I would have said the same thing 2 years ago so I'm not necessarily the most reliable source on that

 

[Daniel C]

No, we certainly don't plan to make people buy those again except possibly as optional paid upgrades to new editions.



Hopefully more like the former but I would have said the same thing 2 years ago so I'm not necessarily the most reliable source on that

I guess Mike you are lucky that your software is hands down by far the best on the market and you have no serious competitors. Perhaps in a more competitive market many users might have given up waiting. But don't worry - we'll never leave you.

 

[mikelove]

I guess Mike you are lucky that your software is hands down by far the best on the market and you have no serious competitors. Perhaps in a more competitive market many users might have given up waiting. But don't worry - we'll never leave you.

In a more competitive market I wouldn't be doing a big reinvent-everything update; I'd be adding little features incrementally and warily eyeing competitors doing the same thing. Whether the eventual product is better this way is TBD (though I believe it will be).

 

[Weyland]

The question would've been whether HSK 3.0 releases first or Pleco 4.0. If Pleco 4.0 were to release before July 1st this year, then it'd win over the new HSK.

Or at least that'd be the case... if it weren't for the recent announcement that there'd a 3-5 year moratorium on HSK 3.0's complete implementation. The upper HSK levels (7-9) will see its first trials in December though, and official launch in March 2022 (fingers crossed). So, if I'd be able to partake in Pleco 4.0's beta before March 2022, then that'd be kind of neat and that'd still mean Pleco beat out the HSK with their new release.

 

[mikelove]

So, if I'd be able to partake in Pleco 4.0's beta before March 2022, then that'd be kind of neat and that'd still mean Pleco beat out the HSK with their new release.

Eh, we can do HSK support independently of 4.0 - it's just a data file thing, can add new entries + update the list in the existing app perfectly well. Marketing-wise it might be nice but since we're not planning to charge for same-feature upgrades it's not a big deal, no "upgrade to 4.0 for HSK 3.0" type deal.

 

[Fernando]

In a more competitive market I wouldn't be doing a big reinvent-everything update; I'd be adding little features incrementally and warily eyeing competitors doing the same thing. Whether the eventual product is better this way is TBD (though I believe it will be).

At this pace Dogecoin will make it to the moon before Pleco 4.0 for Mac makes it to beta

Honestly folks, let the man build his Sagrada Familia, and meanwhile spare your mental health by staying away from these discussions. It will be ready eventually, and it will probably be good. But I, for one, am already resigned to the fact that I won’t see desktop Pleco any time in the foreseable future.

 

[LeonardoM]

I think it would be awesome if after a flashcard is revealed to see a various meanings next to some photos, since it's proven that connecting a word to a daily action - in this case through an image that shows such action - is an efficient way to learn a language (see Rosetta Stone), as well as showing sample sentences to put that characters into a context, as if I were to look that word up in the Pleco dictionary.

 

[mikelove]

I think it would be awesome if after a flashcard is revealed to see a various meanings next to some photos, since it's proven that connecting a word to a daily action - in this case through an image that shows such action - is an efficient way to learn a language (see Rosetta Stone)

We've already added that for 4.0, the main limitation at the moment is that you have to bring the images in from files or your photo album since we haven't yet added an image search feature - trying to figure out a way to do that that a) works in China and b) doesn't get our app a 17+ rating is dicey.

 

[rizen suha]

@Fernando
haha daxiao lmfao
sagrada familia, i hope not

 

[Shun]

I agree. To be precise, there must have been many long interruptions in the construction of the Sagrada Familia, which clearly isn't the case for Mike's large project at hand. Also, he seems to be quite far along already, judging by the many promising screenshots he has posted.

 

[mikelove]

Eh, 139 years isn't even particularly slow by cathedral-building standards - many of the great old Gothic ones took 2 centuries or longer

No major wars or whatever, but I'm vastly less productive now than I was in the earlier days of Pleco when I didn't have kids.

 

[Fernando]

Eh, 139 years isn't even particularly slow by cathedral-building standards

139 years and counting.

To the Sagrada Familia’s defence, though, it has already been consecrated and is already a functioning church, even if still incomplete. So it’s beaten Pleco to beta stage, lol!

Plus, we’re not building many new cathedrals anymore, few people today still believe that there is anything more sacred than their own butth*les. The Great Helmsman would be proud.