[Unofficial] Feature Request / Suggestion List

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
#1 makes sense, #2 I'm generally wary of that sort of thing because it can get very confusing when you have multiple dictionaries that handle this in multiple different ways (and we don't have the editorial flexibility to apply this logic to every dictionary).
 

Weyland

探花
It would be kind of neat if just like tagging words you could tag word in example sentences. Like let's say I designated a category (e.g. HSK6 vocab) with a specific colour, red in this case.

Sentence: 为经济腾飞奠定牢固的基础。

Then have the HSK6 words red underscored.
 

Weyland

探花
Make it so that you don't have to reupload a flashcard collection only to then be able to change the dictionary order for that specific category.
 
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mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
Tagging words in examples: this should be supported / is supported in current builds (albeit with some deep diving into expert settings).

Change order: sorry, do you basically mean that you'd like to be able to do a remap with multiple dictionaries?
 

Weyland

探花
Change order: sorry, do you basically mean that you'd like to be able to do a remap with multiple dictionaries?

I'd like to be able to overwrite the dictionary sequence/order for a specific imported category. Because let's say I order it as PLC > CC > GF > etc. when I did my first import. Then from then on it will always be set in stone that that is the configuration of the definitions that show up for the card. But, let's say that one day I buy the OCC , and I rather like it. Now for all of a sudden I will need to delete then re-import all my cards to have the OCC > PLC > CC > GF > etc. sequence. But, let's go a step further; what if I wanted to test myself with only showing Chinese definitions? Well, then I will have to again delete and re-import, but now with the GF > OCC > PLC > CC > etc. sequence.

I would like to be able to overwrite a category of cards' dictionary definitions with a new dictionary sequence. So that any new dictionaries I have bought, have begun to like or switched over to can be at the top.
 
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jurgen85

榜眼
Group/filter sentences by pinyin, isolation, etc.

E.g. currently 行 includes both xíng and háng sentences. I'm usually only interested in one at a time.

Also useful would be to filter compound words (i.e. depending on whether the pinyin is directly connected to another syllable, here 举行、流行 etc). If I am interested in their sentences I would then open them from those words, or have them in a collapsible section like in the chars and words tabs.

A heuristic might achieve similar things even for sentences without pinyin.
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
Pinyin part is already implemented - isolation is a bit trickier since we don't have reliable text segmentation for all of them.
 

Weyland

探花
•>(■) Auto-play/loop Review; have the cards advance automatically, with a selectable timer, e.g., every 3, 5 or 10 seconds; and the ability to loop again once the list is finished

While Mike has mentioned this wouldn't be feasible, I was able to find a workaround.

Screenshot_20201211-021420_Pleco.jpg


You can download an auto-clicker on Android, and just set up a profile for Pleco. Here I set up 12 clicks with a 5-second delay to play the audio of the word in question, and then after a minute (12 clicks) switch to the next word/card.

Be aware that due to the positioning of the audio-button it will open any potential pop-ups (e.g. WeChat messages). If this bothers you (like it bothered me) then you can enable the "Don't Disturb" mode on your phone, which will block those pop-ups.
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
This is extremely cool!

But sorry, it's definitely feasible, in fact it's already implemented for 4.0 (and quite intelligently, e.g. it'll wait until the audio finishes playing before it advances):

Simulator Screen Shot - iPhone 12 Pro - 2020-12-11 at 00.18.13.png
 

Weyland

探花
This is extremely cool!
Those are my words!


... in fact it's already implemented for 4.0 ...

Would it then be possible to have like Google/Apple voice read out the contents of the dictionary card? When I was in China what I would do is record the stuff I wanted to learn the next day the night before by recording the word, the tone, the definition etc. in my own voice and then play it back to myself when walking through the streets/driving.

If version 4.0 gave the possibility to read the contents of my flashcards out loud then younger (and to an extent current) me would be ecstatic!
 

c933103

Member
It would be nice if the dictionary can be provided in Kindle format and be available through Amazon store of different regions! This way users can use Kindle's built in dictionary lookup feature to lookup phases in ebook they're reading seamlessly.
 

jurgen85

榜眼
“Show switch dict option” before reveal

In tests that show the definition first anyway, toggling dicts shouldn't be considered cheating IMO, as long as the usual things are still hidden. The beauty of digital dicts is that they complement each other (especially with short definitions for near synonyms)!
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
It would be nice if the dictionary can be provided in Kindle format and be available through Amazon store of different regions! This way users can use Kindle's built in dictionary lookup feature to lookup phases in ebook they're reading seamlessly.

No way for us to do that, unfortunately.

In tests that show the definition first anyway, toggling dicts shouldn't be considered cheating IMO, as long as the usual things are still hidden. The beauty of digital dicts is that they complement each other (especially with short definitions for near synonyms)!

Fair enough - this is customizable in 4.0.
 

jurgen85

榜眼
Slash-aware search

Let's take a look at 乱动 in ABC, which has a line "move/act indiscreetly/randomly". Without knowing this in advance, we might search for any of the four possibly ways, but by coincidence only get one hit "act indiscreetly" (and another coincidence in CC for "move randomly"), while "move indiscreetly" and "act randomly" are currently out of luck for matching 乱动. Regex-like word boundaries to the rescue?
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
That one's tricky because there's not an obvious way to indicate that a particular set of slashes carry that semantic meaning; we'd have to go through and manually code slash-separated word pairs in the dictionary to indicate that they should be treated as interchangeable tokens at a particular string position (rather than tokens at consecutive positions).
 

jurgen85

榜眼
I can see how it would be trouble for Chinese, but for English, could we not treat English orthography as syntax, considering how there are two words separated only by a slash without any space? Even basic [a-z] (and ü, ñ, ç etc.) would probably cover 99% of cases (no need for \b or the like either). If it doesn't match, it doesn't match, and no harm done? Where would any false positives come from?

([a-z]+)/([a-z]+)
 
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mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
A slash might have another meaning; it could separate more than one word, for example, or be part of some technical term. A quick check of the first few entries in PLC shows me references to 4/4 time, an example "ground floor (UK) / first floor (US)", various velocities in km/s, a reference to A/H1N1 flu, camera f-stops, a list of the BRICS countries where simply looking for /s between words would leave you thinking that "Russia Africa" and "China Africa" were countries, etc.

These aren't unfixable problems, and one could probably come up with heuristics to catch a good % of them, but there'd still be a ton of proofreading and hand-checking involved - you really wouldn't want to do it wrong or you'd end up wrecking a lot of other searches that currently work fine - and I honestly don't know if enough people would benefit from this feature for it to be worth the effort.
 

rizen suha

状元
for fun and rewarding listening practice, wanted: flashcard mode where question = hanzi sounds, answer to be input = handwritten characters. this makes sense when flashcards contain multi-hanzi words. answer should be counted as correct when it is an actual word (to be found in some dictionary) regardless of the specific word on the flashcard, the word on the flashcard only gives the tones. if the input answer word is actually the word on the flashcard, the flashcard is revealed. otherwise a dictionary entry for the word is shown. optionally, and quite apart from the above, alternative words matching the sounded pronunciation could be made available ("click somewhere").
 
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