Pleco for Mac Update?

[abai]

View attachment 4679

haha, dope.

Yeah, it works for me too. Handwriting etc. all works as well and since clipboard is also shared between devices you can easily copy paste things across. It's great.

 

[kasim]

Seems like developing a separate desktop version for MacOS doesn't make that much sense now

 

[mikelove]

I think there are still other reasons to do it, it just maybe has to offer more than 'floating iPhone screen' functionality

 

[abai]

I think there are still other reasons to do it, it just maybe has to offer more than 'floating iPhone screen' functionality

Absolutely. I've been using screen sharing and there's a few downsides:

• Clipboard sharing is possible but fairly slow
• Start up time can take a while
• Keyboard is a bit finicky and you can't select character via number, you have to arrow through them manually
  
• Copying text can be painful sometimes
• You can't copy the Zhuyin text (not sure about pinyin, I don't use it)
• There's no keyboard shortcuts in general

With a native application there's also the opportunity for system-wide shortcuts, e.g. highlight text and hit keybind to open Pleco directly, or have a mode where any text highlighted will hover a small dict. window like this extension:

 

[ACardiganAndAFrown]

I think there are still other reasons to do it, it just maybe has to offer more than 'floating iPhone screen' functionality

Just being able to resize the window would be more than enough, really. Adding lack of latency + inconsistency with Handoff (like @abai mentioned), would already make it a much more enjoyable experience.

 

[Shun]

@ACardiganAndAFrown I doubt that will ever be possible because you're always limited to the portable device's screen size. (and, just one screen) In my view, Pleco is an exceptional case in the mobile apps space. An app as feature-rich as Pleco deserves a full-grown computing machine to stretch its legs.

You could even do Live OCR on the desktop if you link it to the iPhone's camera, except you will see what's being scanned much larger on the screen in front of you.

What's clear is that Mike's time and development manpower is limited, but I am happy that he feels the effort that goes into a desktop version is justified. Almost everyone has a laptop or desktop, too.

More ideas:

• A separate window for the flashcard category tree.
• Separate windows for lists of flashcard categories (double click on category in the tree to open)
• Flashcards can be dragged and dropped between categories, with Option-drag to copy them.
• Dictionary entries in search results can also be dragged to flashcard categories.
• A separate dictionary search history window, also with the ability to drag and drop to flashcard categories
• Flashcard studying sessions could have a history window.

All of this seems quite natural, but could be used in powerful ways.