Pleco Desktop
- Thread starter james
- Start date
character - no reason we can't do both, this is more of a side project at the moment - iPad version's selling like hotcakes, we'd be crazy not to keep improving that. We could release a quick-and-dirty Windows port that was basically just the WM version adjusted to be reasonably desktop-screen-/mouse-friendly and see if there was enough interest to justify doing more with it - if Wenlin 4.0 turns out well, we might find that demand for a desktop Pleco for anything other than flashcard editing largely evaporates.
Thanks for the substantial comment-not-needed-picture-is-worth-a-thousand-words-update Mike! Looks beautiful for a quick dirty port. My big question: How to accurately draw characters with a mouse?
Drawing characters accurately with a mouse is difficult, but graphics tablets are cheap and could be cheaper if we sourced a bunch of them from a Chinese manufacturer. (probably get the price down to something like $15 or $20, and you could easily match that yourself in Zhongguancun or that tech neighborhood in Taipei I'm forgetting the name of)
And of course anyone with a touchscreen PDA or smartphone already has a nice little portable graphics tablet that might potentially be linked to a computer... (heck, on iPhone there are already dozens of remote control apps available)
And of course anyone with a touchscreen PDA or smartphone already has a nice little portable graphics tablet that might potentially be linked to a computer... (heck, on iPhone there are already dozens of remote control apps available)
Great point about graphics tablets. I forgot about using WiFi to link a PDA or smartphone with the PC to use it as such. I too have seen many programs for that very purpose on the iPhone but hadn't tried any yet. Sounds like a fun and simple way to resolve the handwriting input issue on PCs when your Pleco Desktop version comes out.
It should certainly be possible licensing-wise to release a version for Mac as well, but Windows is coming first because we're trying to provide an option for people who don't have / don't want iPhones / iPods / iPads as Windows Mobile and Palm OS devices become increasingly hard to find. Plus it happens to be a bit easier to port to - Windows Mobile has considerably more in common with desktop Windows than iPhone OS does with Mac. And there's a good chance the Windows version would be usable on Mac through WINE.
Thanks for the quick answer, Mike. There's a considerably higher number of dictionary programs for the Windows platform, and an absolute dearth thereof for Macs, so at least you could be pretty sure that every Mac user who needs a dictionary program would choose yours 
That being said, running it through wine is definitely better than nothing!
That being said, running it through wine is definitely better than nothing!
sui.generis
探花
Screenshots. Sweet.
Out of curiosity, if one had a mobile Pleco and a desktop pleco, would their past dictionary purchases (or most of them) be good to go for both? Or for licensing reasons would one only be able to use them in one or the other?
To wit, there are good windows tablets. A nice convertible tablet could make a good pleco device. I don't totally understand what tablet optimization would add to the software, but I assume the basics of character entry could be done without that. And sure, desktop windows isn't as ideal on super power efficient hardware as lighter, made from scratch OSs, but it does come with the perk of having much higher quality software available. Less cutsy "apps" and more meaty, powerful applications that aren't typically broken every time your OS gets an update or a new resolution gets intro'd. And, Win7 seemed to run snappier on my 6 year old laptop than Win XP did.
Out of curiosity, if one had a mobile Pleco and a desktop pleco, would their past dictionary purchases (or most of them) be good to go for both? Or for licensing reasons would one only be able to use them in one or the other?
To wit, there are good windows tablets. A nice convertible tablet could make a good pleco device. I don't totally understand what tablet optimization would add to the software, but I assume the basics of character entry could be done without that. And sure, desktop windows isn't as ideal on super power efficient hardware as lighter, made from scratch OSs, but it does come with the perk of having much higher quality software available. Less cutsy "apps" and more meaty, powerful applications that aren't typically broken every time your OS gets an update or a new resolution gets intro'd. And, Win7 seemed to run snappier on my 6 year old laptop than Win XP did.
Not 100% sure yet, but I believe purchases would still only be valid on one device at a time. If we can find a way to reliably read SD card serial numbers on Windows, though, we might be able to pull the same "Card ID" trick from Palm/WM on desktops as well.
And yes, I agree completely about the overall quality of desktop apps - in fact I think both Apple and Google have been ignoring this at their peril by failing to do more to encourage higher-priced / higher-quality apps for their mobile platforms; they've left open an opportunity for Microsoft + Intel (not in 2010, but maybe in 2011/2012) to introduce an ultra-low-power Atom smartphone running Windows 7. Applications would still have to be tweaked to offer good small touchscreen interfaces, but doing that would be a whole lot easier than rewriting them for iPhone or Android or Windows Phone 7 (heck, some Windows applications are so customizable that the user could practically do the customization by him/herself), and their capabilities would dwarf anything in mobile apps - why settle for Photoshop Online when you can run the actual Photoshop? Why play Civilization Revolution when you can play full-on Civ IV? (Steam on smartphones is a prospect that should excite any electronic gaming fan) Microsoft Office versus iWork / QuickOffice / DocsToGo / etc isn't even a fair fight...
And with tablets the Windows + Atom combination is pretty much a slam dunk even now - no major UI changes needed in a lot of cases. Windows 7 may not quite have the slickness / speed of an iPhone- or Chrome-OS-based tablet, but applications-wise there's just no comparison. Though for more casual users the polish / ease-of-use of an iPad would still make it a better bet.
And yes, I agree completely about the overall quality of desktop apps - in fact I think both Apple and Google have been ignoring this at their peril by failing to do more to encourage higher-priced / higher-quality apps for their mobile platforms; they've left open an opportunity for Microsoft + Intel (not in 2010, but maybe in 2011/2012) to introduce an ultra-low-power Atom smartphone running Windows 7. Applications would still have to be tweaked to offer good small touchscreen interfaces, but doing that would be a whole lot easier than rewriting them for iPhone or Android or Windows Phone 7 (heck, some Windows applications are so customizable that the user could practically do the customization by him/herself), and their capabilities would dwarf anything in mobile apps - why settle for Photoshop Online when you can run the actual Photoshop? Why play Civilization Revolution when you can play full-on Civ IV? (Steam on smartphones is a prospect that should excite any electronic gaming fan) Microsoft Office versus iWork / QuickOffice / DocsToGo / etc isn't even a fair fight...
And with tablets the Windows + Atom combination is pretty much a slam dunk even now - no major UI changes needed in a lot of cases. Windows 7 may not quite have the slickness / speed of an iPhone- or Chrome-OS-based tablet, but applications-wise there's just no comparison. Though for more casual users the polish / ease-of-use of an iPad would still make it a better bet.
sui.generis
探花
Heh. Because you don't have 60 hours to blow.
I know what you mean. Its just that I'm still a few hours of play away from completing a Civ3 game I started in December and half of me no longer wants to finish (even though it has been a fantastic game so far). In retrospect, I should have chosen a smaller map size. Or even vs Office Mobile. I'm 7 different kinds of pissed at how crappy OneNote mobile 2010 is, though I understand the winpho7 version is supposed to be moderately better. Having full OneNote on a mobile would be killer and solve a lot of my mobile annoyances.
A trend that should only increase as desktops get more mobilized. Once upon a time, I thought smartphones should become dummy terminals to our desktops, with an application inbetween to retranslate and render (with templates that are user script-able) GUI elements for mobile screen sizes, constructing static html/CSS/javascript transmissions instead of trying to duplicate your desktop screen on your mobile. Live feed VNC is weak, but there's a lot of potential for cheaper, less fragmented mobile experiences with some creative thinking. However, since we're sitting on a little bit of a tech plateau right now, a lot of focus is going towards reducing power requirements, increasing battery life and decreasing component size, there's less need to lean on that tech. Multi-tasking is hard on the Atom (I have an Aspire One), but it and similar platforms are far more capable than they're given credit for. Despite resolution issues not relevant to the processor, I was able to get civ4 to run on my netbook.
If you think Civ is a time sink, try Galactic Civilizations - even bigger maps, even fewer reasons for the game to come to a swift end.
The move to dual-core Atoms should help the multitasking situation on them considerably - the first smartphone-friendly Atoms will probably still be mostly single-core, but dual-core is certainly a possibility for those going forward too. With the flash memory boom having conveniently erased the one remaining too-bulky-to-fit-in-a-smartphone PC component, it's really just a matter of time before the tedious incremental work of reducing power requirements / increasing battery efficiency gets us to a point where Pocket-PCs-that-are-actually-PCs become a reality.
The move to dual-core Atoms should help the multitasking situation on them considerably - the first smartphone-friendly Atoms will probably still be mostly single-core, but dual-core is certainly a possibility for those going forward too. With the flash memory boom having conveniently erased the one remaining too-bulky-to-fit-in-a-smartphone PC component, it's really just a matter of time before the tedious incremental work of reducing power requirements / increasing battery efficiency gets us to a point where Pocket-PCs-that-are-actually-PCs become a reality.