Pleco for Android 2.3.11-14 Bug Report Thread
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ziggy
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Re: Pleco for Android 2.3.11 Bug Report Thread
Not sure this is the right place to post, but here is an issue that I have encountered :
I'm using a Samsung Galaxy S2 with Android 4.0.3, and Pleco 2.3.8 (non Market).
I have created Flash Cards and three categories. When I go to Organise cards, tapping on one of the categories (containing only a few cards), makes the screen turn black, and, after five-ten seconds, a small window says "Pleco s'est arrêté (Pleco has stopped). OK".
When I clock OK I get back to the standard character input screen.
I now have erased this category, and created another with a slightly different name ; it seem to work. I don't know what was the issue but it persisted whatever I did (closing the application, retry...). Maybe somebody has ad the same problem or not. I thought it may be useful to report.
Not sure this is the right place to post, but here is an issue that I have encountered :
I'm using a Samsung Galaxy S2 with Android 4.0.3, and Pleco 2.3.8 (non Market).
I have created Flash Cards and three categories. When I go to Organise cards, tapping on one of the categories (containing only a few cards), makes the screen turn black, and, after five-ten seconds, a small window says "Pleco s'est arrêté (Pleco has stopped). OK".
When I clock OK I get back to the standard character input screen.
I now have erased this category, and created another with a slightly different name ; it seem to work. I don't know what was the issue but it persisted whatever I did (closing the application, retry...). Maybe somebody has ad the same problem or not. I thought it may be useful to report.
Re: Pleco for Android 2.3.11 Bug Report Thread
Thanks for the bug report. This should have been fixed as of 2.3.9 - type pleco.com/getandroid in your device's web browser to download the latest version (2.3.11). If it doesn't work, let me know and we can investigate further.
ziggy said:
Thanks for the bug report. This should have been fixed as of 2.3.9 - type pleco.com/getandroid in your device's web browser to download the latest version (2.3.11). If it doesn't work, let me know and we can investigate further.
ziggy
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Re: Pleco for Android 2.3.11 Bug Report Thread
Thank you I did what you said and updated my Pleco to 2.3.11. I haven't seen the problem decribed hereabove again so far.
However here is two another ones (that I did encoutner earlier with the previous release) :
1 - When I type a word beginning with "A", I sometimes obtain the very first page of the dictionary, i.e. ": a(an) 1. 一 yi ; 一 个".. etc. It happens in a random way, not predictibly following any pattern (as far as I see). Or if I type "more", I get : MA = master of Arts. So it may direct you to the first entry of a specific letter section of the dictionary, the letter being the inital of the entry that you typed.
This when I have 英 displayed at the top left of the screen (and I'm typing an an English word entry), and NWP at the top right.
2 - I sometimes have an English-Chinese dictionary output, sometimes a Chinese-English dictionnary output... It seems that as I type an entry, the top-right dictionary abbreviation (PLC, CC NWP) may change by itself.
For example I just typed "potter", and I got 陶土 (Tàotu) [Chinese dict. entry] . Then after a few other searches, without changing the output dict. name, I typed aircraft and got : aircraft n. 航空器..." etc [English dict. entry].
Is the program supposed to switch from one dict. to another depending on the first letters of the word that you are typing ? Any other explanation ?
Thank you.
Thank you I did what you said and updated my Pleco to 2.3.11. I haven't seen the problem decribed hereabove again so far.
However here is two another ones (that I did encoutner earlier with the previous release) :
1 - When I type a word beginning with "A", I sometimes obtain the very first page of the dictionary, i.e. ": a(an) 1. 一 yi ; 一 个".. etc. It happens in a random way, not predictibly following any pattern (as far as I see). Or if I type "more", I get : MA = master of Arts. So it may direct you to the first entry of a specific letter section of the dictionary, the letter being the inital of the entry that you typed.
This when I have 英 displayed at the top left of the screen (and I'm typing an an English word entry), and NWP at the top right.
2 - I sometimes have an English-Chinese dictionary output, sometimes a Chinese-English dictionnary output... It seems that as I type an entry, the top-right dictionary abbreviation (PLC, CC NWP) may change by itself.
For example I just typed "potter", and I got 陶土 (Tàotu) [Chinese dict. entry] . Then after a few other searches, without changing the output dict. name, I typed aircraft and got : aircraft n. 航空器..." etc [English dict. entry].
Is the program supposed to switch from one dict. to another depending on the first letters of the word that you are typing ? Any other explanation ?
Thank you.
Re: Pleco for Android 2.3.11 Bug Report Thread
Hmm, we haven't had any other reports of that so far - have you changed any of Pleco's settings from their default values? Which dictionary are you seeing this "MA" from?
(the entire system for displaying E-C results has been thrown out / replaced for our next major update, so if this is an un-reproducible bug it'll likely go away in that version anyway, but it'd still be nice to figure out why it's happening)
That's normal - we search all of our installed dictionaries whenever you type in a new search term and switch to a different one if we find a better match. There's an option to merge / consolidate results from multiple dictionaries in C-E and that will be extended to every type of search in our next major update, at which point you'd only ever have to deal with it automatically jumping between Chinese and English (though even that can be turned off in Settings if you want to).
ziggy said:
Hmm, we haven't had any other reports of that so far - have you changed any of Pleco's settings from their default values? Which dictionary are you seeing this "MA" from?
(the entire system for displaying E-C results has been thrown out / replaced for our next major update, so if this is an un-reproducible bug it'll likely go away in that version anyway, but it'd still be nice to figure out why it's happening)
ziggy said:
That's normal - we search all of our installed dictionaries whenever you type in a new search term and switch to a different one if we find a better match. There's an option to merge / consolidate results from multiple dictionaries in C-E and that will be extended to every type of search in our next major update, at which point you'd only ever have to deal with it automatically jumping between Chinese and English (though even that can be turned off in Settings if you want to).
ziggy
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Re: Pleco for Android 2.3.11 Bug Report Thread
For item #1 you may look at a video posted here : http://www.autodrome.fr/P1150148.MOV (hope you can get it, it'a about 30-60 seconds to download).
The first time i tap "OK" whilst the word entered in the upper window is aircraft, it displays : "a (an).." etc. Then the second time it opens the correct entry in the dictionary.
Please note also - but this is ergonomics, not a bug- that when in this situation I tap "return" (the button at the bottom right of my Samsung Galaxy S2), instead of going back to a previous "page" (or search), it closes the application. I find it uncomfortable, even though I cold get back to a blank search window by tapping the X at the top right. In fact my thumb is closer to the "return" button, and it is more intuitive for me.
To answer your question, I have a picture of the screen with at the top 英 as the entry language, AIRPLANE as the word searched, and NWP as the Dict. The entries that I read underneath are "B, A. BA = Bahcelro of Arts..."
But I can't figure out how to insert the picture in the post.
Hope this helps.
For item #1 you may look at a video posted here : http://www.autodrome.fr/P1150148.MOV (hope you can get it, it'a about 30-60 seconds to download).
The first time i tap "OK" whilst the word entered in the upper window is aircraft, it displays : "a (an).." etc. Then the second time it opens the correct entry in the dictionary.
Please note also - but this is ergonomics, not a bug- that when in this situation I tap "return" (the button at the bottom right of my Samsung Galaxy S2), instead of going back to a previous "page" (or search), it closes the application. I find it uncomfortable, even though I cold get back to a blank search window by tapping the X at the top right. In fact my thumb is closer to the "return" button, and it is more intuitive for me.
To answer your question, I have a picture of the screen with at the top 英 as the entry language, AIRPLANE as the word searched, and NWP as the Dict. The entries that I read underneath are "B, A. BA = Bahcelro of Arts..."
But I can't figure out how to insert the picture in the post.
Hope this helps.
Re: Pleco for Android 2.3.11 Bug Report Thread
Did you turn on the option in Pleco to allow auto-suggest? If you did, turn that option back off; if you didn't, it sounds like there might be a bug in your device's keyboard software. Auto-suggest has a habit of mucking up searches, which is why we leave it off by default and discourage people from turning it on.
We've added a option in the new version to reverse the current back button behavior so that instead of closing the keyboard and exiting the app when the keyboard is already closed, it opens the keyboard and exits the app when the keyboard is already open. I think it's really just a question of individual user perceptions - our decidedly non-scientific poll of a few forum users suggested that almost everybody likes it better the current way, but we've had a few other people write / post to suggest that they prefer it reversed, which is why we're adding the option.
Thanks for the feedback!
That's odd, we didn't touch the relevant code at all - are you sure it went away in 2.3.8/9/10?
ziggy said:
Did you turn on the option in Pleco to allow auto-suggest? If you did, turn that option back off; if you didn't, it sounds like there might be a bug in your device's keyboard software. Auto-suggest has a habit of mucking up searches, which is why we leave it off by default and discourage people from turning it on.
ziggy said:
We've added a option in the new version to reverse the current back button behavior so that instead of closing the keyboard and exiting the app when the keyboard is already closed, it opens the keyboard and exits the app when the keyboard is already open. I think it's really just a question of individual user perceptions - our decidedly non-scientific poll of a few forum users suggested that almost everybody likes it better the current way, but we've had a few other people write / post to suggest that they prefer it reversed, which is why we're adding the option.
Thanks for the feedback!
HW60 said:
That's odd, we didn't touch the relevant code at all - are you sure it went away in 2.3.8/9/10?
ziggy
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Re: Pleco for Android 2.3.11 Bug Report Thread
- "Did you turn on the option in Pleco to allow auto-suggest? "
I checked, and, no, Input processing shows :"Enable suggestions" not checked.
I did a reset on all settings (it says "successful"). And I will see how it works now.
- "We've added a option in the new version to reverse the current back button behavior"
Do you mean in the next one to be released, since I can't find this in the "Dictionary settings" - or didn't I look at the right place ?
Regarding your poll, it is somehow biased in my opinion, because the choice appears too narrow ; doesn't the second choice lead to the question : "how do I close the app, then ?"
If I may make a suggestion, I would like this :
"Close the keyboard if it's open, move to previous screen (or search) otherwise - and exit the app on holding it pressed." [the latter action being what it actually does already !]
Because, in fact, there is a very convenient button at the bottom allowing to open the keyboard when it's closed - so do we need two different actions that lead to the same result ?
- "Did you turn on the option in Pleco to allow auto-suggest? "
I checked, and, no, Input processing shows :"Enable suggestions" not checked.
I did a reset on all settings (it says "successful"). And I will see how it works now.
- "We've added a option in the new version to reverse the current back button behavior"
Do you mean in the next one to be released, since I can't find this in the "Dictionary settings" - or didn't I look at the right place ?
Regarding your poll, it is somehow biased in my opinion, because the choice appears too narrow ; doesn't the second choice lead to the question : "how do I close the app, then ?"
If I may make a suggestion, I would like this :
"Close the keyboard if it's open, move to previous screen (or search) otherwise - and exit the app on holding it pressed." [the latter action being what it actually does already !]
Because, in fact, there is a very convenient button at the bottom allowing to open the keyboard when it's closed - so do we need two different actions that lead to the same result ?
Re: Pleco for Android 2.3.11-13 Bug Report Thread
That button isn't as convenient on all devices, and actually even on those that do have it the standard behavior is for Back to close the keyboard - that's what happens in pretty much all of Google's built-in apps, e.g.
OK, we'll see if we can still reproduce it. Though we're probably not going to put out any more minor 2.3 patches unless we discover another showstopper bug in Android 4.1 like the few we've fixed recently - outside of that we'll be holding off on further updates until the next big one.
ziggy said:
That button isn't as convenient on all devices, and actually even on those that do have it the standard behavior is for Back to close the keyboard - that's what happens in pretty much all of Google's built-in apps, e.g.
HW60 said:
OK, we'll see if we can still reproduce it. Though we're probably not going to put out any more minor 2.3 patches unless we discover another showstopper bug in Android 4.1 like the few we've fixed recently - outside of that we'll be holding off on further updates until the next big one.
ziggy
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Re: Pleco for Android 2.3.11-13 Bug Report Thread
"That button isn't as convenient on all devices,"
Maybe I wasn't clear : the "convenient button" that I am talking about is within the Pleco app screen, not on my device : second from right, next to OCR.
So when I'm on the regular search screen I can use it to open the keyboard, whilst if I wish to close the app, I just have to maintain the (Samsung) return button (bottom right) about oneone and a half second. This would enable the use of the "return" button to go to the previous screen in case the keyboard is closed..
This is the way I see it, but it's not necessarily better for others.
Anyhow, Pleco is incredibly good and even impressive. I actually waited for about two years until you finalised the Android version to replace my old Samsung i600 phone with physical beyboard, by a touchscreen phone (because I don't want to fall into the Apple "system").
"That button isn't as convenient on all devices,"
Maybe I wasn't clear : the "convenient button" that I am talking about is within the Pleco app screen, not on my device : second from right, next to OCR.
So when I'm on the regular search screen I can use it to open the keyboard, whilst if I wish to close the app, I just have to maintain the (Samsung) return button (bottom right) about oneone and a half second. This would enable the use of the "return" button to go to the previous screen in case the keyboard is closed..
This is the way I see it, but it's not necessarily better for others.
Anyhow, Pleco is incredibly good and even impressive. I actually waited for about two years until you finalised the Android version to replace my old Samsung i600 phone with physical beyboard, by a touchscreen phone (because I don't want to fall into the Apple "system").
Re: Pleco for Android 2.3.11-13 Bug Report Thread
Sorry, I wasn't quite understanding you before - so you'd like the back button to bring you back to the previous search? That's theoretically doable, but it's a rather uncommon app behavior and there's not quite the obvious page forward / page back metaphor that exists in the web browser (which is the only major example of this that I can think of) - it would have to be another off-by-default option, and those are always tough to justify spending time on unless there's widespread demand for them. However, if we get other people asking for this we can certainly consider it.
Thank you! Interesting move from a purely-button-driven phone to a purely-touchscreen one - Android used to be designed to accommodate both models though they've now gone over pretty much entirely to touchscreens.
ziggy said:
Sorry, I wasn't quite understanding you before - so you'd like the back button to bring you back to the previous search? That's theoretically doable, but it's a rather uncommon app behavior and there's not quite the obvious page forward / page back metaphor that exists in the web browser (which is the only major example of this that I can think of) - it would have to be another off-by-default option, and those are always tough to justify spending time on unless there's widespread demand for them. However, if we get other people asking for this we can certainly consider it.
ziggy said:
Thank you! Interesting move from a purely-button-driven phone to a purely-touchscreen one - Android used to be designed to accommodate both models though they've now gone over pretty much entirely to touchscreens.
Re: Pleco for Android 2.3.11 Bug Report Thread
Should be fixed in the new 2.3.14 - turned out we'd accidentally rolled back the old changes in 2.3.9, so since we were doing a minor update anyway to more completely work around Google's 4.1 text-formatting bug we re-introduced those changes too. Thanks for pointing this out.
HW60 said:
Should be fixed in the new 2.3.14 - turned out we'd accidentally rolled back the old changes in 2.3.9, so since we were doing a minor update anyway to more completely work around Google's 4.1 text-formatting bug we re-introduced those changes too. Thanks for pointing this out.
yesterday （guess it still was with 2.3.11) i saw first time the reader come up with half screen size (as if the keyboard needs space).
the only thing i can think of i made different is that i might have left the dictionary with the taskmanager (long press menue button), which i dont do normally...
the only thing i can think of i made different is that i might have left the dictionary with the taskmanager (long press menue button), which i dont do normally...
ziggy
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To Mike :
Actually, I'd like very much to be able to "go backwards" indefinitely with repeated use of the "return" (device) button (- unless pressed for, say two seconds, which would close the app - , as I do with the arrow in a browser.
I love to browse dictionaries, so this seems natural to me, once I have checked a few of words, to go back and review the pages that I just saw with a simple click of my thumb...
Opening the botom left (device) button, then choose History, then each word, is not as practical, especially when you checked several translations for a specific word : you have to go back to History between each word to read the complete page.
On the other hand, I just realised that History offers a good view of Dict. entries recently searched, with definitions (although not the full page with examples etc)...
But of course all depends on the way you use the software - also matter of taste maybe !
Actually, I'd like very much to be able to "go backwards" indefinitely with repeated use of the "return" (device) button (- unless pressed for, say two seconds, which would close the app - , as I do with the arrow in a browser.
I love to browse dictionaries, so this seems natural to me, once I have checked a few of words, to go back and review the pages that I just saw with a simple click of my thumb...
Opening the botom left (device) button, then choose History, then each word, is not as practical, especially when you checked several translations for a specific word : you have to go back to History between each word to read the complete page.
On the other hand, I just realised that History offers a good view of Dict. entries recently searched, with definitions (although not the full page with examples etc)...
But of course all depends on the way you use the software - also matter of taste maybe !
ziggy said:
Hmm... well would you want us to go back only to the entry that you were in when you first entered the app, or to go back through your entire search history?
ziggy said:
Which part of history were you viewing? You should be able to scroll between them with recent entries (rather than recent searches) at least, just tap on them to view them full-screen.
ziggy
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I must say that I am confused wiht the way "History works".
Let's say I am on the main search screen, with 中 at the left of the search window, and PLC on the right. My Keyboard is 中文拼音
I type "yin", and select 因 among the Chinese characters proposed by the keyboard. Then I press "完成" (bottom right).
Then I reopen the keyboard with the keyboard icon (bottom centre), and type "yang", then chose 样, then i press "完成". Please note that I have not clicked on the words to see more than the first two lines of definition.
When I then open "History" (bottom left contextual button, then tap Clockwork Icon for History), I only see these last searches in the "Search" section - not in the "Dict." section - and only as the entry word, not the definition or anything else, which is a bit frustrating.
It's only in the "Dict." section that I see entry words AND definition (which is good in my opinion) ; however in this Dict. section, only appear the words that have been "opened" (tapping on them for full screen defintion + examples, etc..).
I find it a bit confusing since you have to toggle between "Dict." and "Search" to see all all previous "searches" (in the broad meaning of the word : sometimes the first screen is enough, sometimes you need to click on it to see the full "page").
Furhermore, when I click on a Dict. entry word, then I can scroll upwards or backwards to see previous or later searches, with the two arrows at the bottom left. But not with the Search entries. I can't figure out why, because this is precisely where I need it, since not only I have to "open" each word (click on them) to remind me of the definition, but also I have to go back and forth to the History section to see several of them in a row, instead of having the possibility to scroll (three clicks instead of one).
I would think that those two sections would be more efective if both contained all words searched (viewing the full definition, or not), and if one would be more compact, showing only entry words (but many on each screen), whilst the other would be more detailed, allowing to read the beginning of defintions but of less words (say ten) at a glance.
To answer your question, if you can have "all" the history, it would be perfect (but probably superfluous and wasting memory space) but at least the History since last opening the app would be fine, or, say, the last fifty.
Hope I'm clear. Tank you for your attention.
Let's say I am on the main search screen, with 中 at the left of the search window, and PLC on the right. My Keyboard is 中文拼音
I type "yin", and select 因 among the Chinese characters proposed by the keyboard. Then I press "完成" (bottom right).
Then I reopen the keyboard with the keyboard icon (bottom centre), and type "yang", then chose 样, then i press "完成". Please note that I have not clicked on the words to see more than the first two lines of definition.
When I then open "History" (bottom left contextual button, then tap Clockwork Icon for History), I only see these last searches in the "Search" section - not in the "Dict." section - and only as the entry word, not the definition or anything else, which is a bit frustrating.
It's only in the "Dict." section that I see entry words AND definition (which is good in my opinion) ; however in this Dict. section, only appear the words that have been "opened" (tapping on them for full screen defintion + examples, etc..).
I find it a bit confusing since you have to toggle between "Dict." and "Search" to see all all previous "searches" (in the broad meaning of the word : sometimes the first screen is enough, sometimes you need to click on it to see the full "page").
Furhermore, when I click on a Dict. entry word, then I can scroll upwards or backwards to see previous or later searches, with the two arrows at the bottom left. But not with the Search entries. I can't figure out why, because this is precisely where I need it, since not only I have to "open" each word (click on them) to remind me of the definition, but also I have to go back and forth to the History section to see several of them in a row, instead of having the possibility to scroll (three clicks instead of one).
I would think that those two sections would be more efective if both contained all words searched (viewing the full definition, or not), and if one would be more compact, showing only entry words (but many on each screen), whilst the other would be more detailed, allowing to read the beginning of defintions but of less words (say ten) at a glance.
To answer your question, if you can have "all" the history, it would be perfect (but probably superfluous and wasting memory space) but at least the History since last opening the app would be fine, or, say, the last fifty.
Hope I'm clear. Tank you for your attention.
ziggy said:
The basic problem here is that with searches, we don't actually know what word you were looking at; you've got a whole list of words, potentially a rather long list depending on the type of search (a single Pinyin syllable, say), so until you actually tap on a specific word we don't know which word we ought to add to history. The exception to this is the combined definition + list view (two-panel mode in Settings / Dictionary / Main screen interface / Portrait), but in that we wait until a specific definition has been visible for a few seconds before we commit it to history; even that's not an option when we're just displaying the list, though.
So the current search / dict distinction is honestly about the best we can do for history at the moment; we can't list every word you search for in more detail because until you tap on a specific entry we don't know which out of a potentially quite long list of matches you were actually looking at. So you can tap on a previous search to bring back those results or tap on a previously-viewed entry to view that entry. We could theoretically show both sets of items in the same list, but that seems very likely to confuse people - not entirely clear what will happen when you tap on one item versus another, or why some items have definitions and some don't.
ziggy
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Ok, I now understand better how it works...
With the pinyin keyboard, the result that you get actually depends on how the search window language is set (中 or 英) and how the keyboard language is set (tab "中" or "Eng").
With search window and tab keyboard on "中" , tapping the suggested character(or suggested string) generally brings a single word + its definition (*). This is what I would like to see in the History / Dict tab ; when only one word has been displayed, I guess that there is no confusion and it could be listed with its definition.
On the other hand, when searching in English (英 search window and "Eng" keyboard), dictionnnary "opens" at the word typed - whether you press "完成" or not - but other words appear below. There would be a confusion here, since you may have been looking for the second word (generally two appear above the keyboard), or you may close the keyboard and scroll for another...
I understand that you cannot accomodate all preferences, and Pleco is already extremely flexible and complete. I may rather be looking for a better use of all the possibilities than for an improvement...
(*) sometimes two, when there is an ambiguity like same character, but two differents words and pronnounciation.
With the pinyin keyboard, the result that you get actually depends on how the search window language is set (中 or 英) and how the keyboard language is set (tab "中" or "Eng").
With search window and tab keyboard on "中" , tapping the suggested character(or suggested string) generally brings a single word + its definition (*). This is what I would like to see in the History / Dict tab ; when only one word has been displayed, I guess that there is no confusion and it could be listed with its definition.
On the other hand, when searching in English (英 search window and "Eng" keyboard), dictionnnary "opens" at the word typed - whether you press "完成" or not - but other words appear below. There would be a confusion here, since you may have been looking for the second word (generally two appear above the keyboard), or you may close the keyboard and scroll for another...
I understand that you cannot accomodate all preferences, and Pleco is already extremely flexible and complete. I may rather be looking for a better use of all the possibilities than for an improvement...
(*) sometimes two, when there is an ambiguity like same character, but two differents words and pronnounciation.