You can use our Android app on Windows via an Android emulator right now, the APK is available to download from our home page at pleco.com.
As for a potential native Windows port, the timeline is that we plan to release a Mac Catalyst version along with or shortly after the next major update to our iOS app, and if that's successful, we'll consider developing a Windows version (after we've finished porting that new version of our app to Android). If it's borderline successful, we might do a Kickstarter or some such for the Windows version and only release it if we make enough money through that.
The basic problem is that a Windows port is a *lot* of work (far more than Mac, which has gotten pretty easy thanks to Catalyst, at least once you have a fully-optimized iPad app) and yet we expect that most people interested in one would already own our mobile app and not be willing to re-purchase everything at full price to use it again on Windows. So we need to figure out if there's any price point for a native Windows version where we'd make enough money to cover the cost of development. That also includes opportunity cost - working on Windows means not working on something else that would grow our business - and the fact that going from 2 platforms to 3 means that every future update takes longer since we have to spend more time porting it.
Any sense of approximately when that next update to the iOS app and the Mac Catalyst version might appear?
I guess what many people might be waiting for is the screen reader. Enabling it does not crash the app as it used to, the floating button appears and when you click on it asks for the service to be enabled. When you click on that as well then it opens windows settings. I digged a little but couldn't find anything related, so that might be an accident that it leads you there.
this is a pretty big issue. if you're committing the resources to a third platform would you consider instead of native windows port, go more in the web-based direction and then distribute packaged up versions like e.g. electron or something?The basic problem is that a Windows port is a *lot* of work (far more than Mac, which has gotten pretty easy thanks to Catalyst, at least once you have a fully-optimized iPad app) and yet we expect that most people interested in one would already own our mobile app and not be willing to re-purchase everything at full price to use it again on Windows. So we need to figure out if there's any price point for a native Windows version where we'd make enough money to cover the cost of development. That also includes opportunity cost - working on Windows means not working on something else that would grow our business - and the fact that going from 2 platforms to 3 means that every future update takes longer since we have to spend more time porting it.
It's a possibility, 4.0 is basically a cross-platform engine talking to the platform UI via JSON anyway and we built it that way partly because it makes object sharing with Java / Swift easier but partly also because it makes a future web-based UI easier.this is a pretty big issue. if you're committing the resources to a third platform would you consider instead of native windows port, go more in the web-based direction and then distribute packaged up versions like e.g. electron or something?
I´m also using it. Do you have any recommendation about the settings to optimize BS? It consumes a lot of the computer resources, and I use BS only for plecoSince this thread shows up at the top of search results for Pleco on Windows, I can recommend BlueStacks to emulate the Pleco APK you can download from the homepage. The app is straightforward to install, you can turn off the ads, and I haven't run into any issues using Pleco. No screen reader support or anything like that, so YMMV if you need deeper integration with Windows.