Znarau Preview 1 Released

[johnny_a]

ZNarau is a kanji and vocabulary reference and training program for students of Japanese. I wrote a little introduction on this forum over a year ago. Now I've decided to release a preview of the program. It's a very early version: it crashes quite often (but predictably). Right now I have very little time to work on the program, so I'm releasing it as-is. I'll release a real beta version as .ipk when I've fixed the most glaring bugs.

That said, I use the program myself for reference and training, and once you learn the quirks it's quite useful.  Here's a very brief get-started guide:

Download znarau_preview_1.tar.gz

My Zaurus is dead right now, so I can't test the package, but it should work. It should be evident from the file structure in the archive how to install it. Also note that I've developed this program on a SL-5500 and I have no idea how it works on other models or in landscape mode. Once the SL-C1000 that I've ordered arrives and I have some time to spare, I'll have a look. The package is large because it contains EDICT and KANJIDIC in a special format.

Then, create a directory named ".znarau" in your home directory, and a subdirectory called "lists".

Start the program, and you'll see this screen (sans the handwriting):


 I have a lot of features planned, but I prioritize fixing bugs, better error-handling and documentation so that I can release a more stable version.

Comments are welcome! Also, suggestions for a new name for the software would be nice...

[xamindar]

This looks great!  It will be very usefull to me.

[jfv]

It's not working on my SL5000D. I copied all files from your tarball to their respective directories on the Zaurus. First it complained that it couldn't load the shared libraries so I made symlinks from your libraries in /opt/QtPalmtop/lib/ to /usr/lib/. I added a 16MB swapfile on a CF card just in case. Now it just doesn't start but doesn't give any error messages. I am running znarau from the command line. The icon is there OK but doesn't work either. Any suggestions?

Thanks

Felipe

[johnny_a]

I'll try to get my Z running and see what could be wrong, perhaps I forgot some file. I'll get back to you.

Edit: By the way, the ".znarau/lists" directory has to exists in the user's home directory (/home/zaurus on my Cacko 5500), otherwise the program doesn't work.

[Greg2]

I'll try to get my Z running and see what could be wrong, perhaps I forgot some file.

I'm using OZ on my Z's so I can't test it now. However taking a quick look at it I see that there are two binarys in /bin but only one is executable. So you could try:

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chmod +x /opt/QtPalmtop/bin/kpenginesee if that works?

[jfv]

Thanks. I was sure I had created those directories as per your instructions, but I went back to double check and they weren't there. Maybe I mistakenly created them in the CF card I used to transfer the tarball. Anyhow, I went back and created .znarau/lists and now it works!

This is for my daughter who is learning Japanense. I'll report her impressions. While I couldn't make znarau work I installed Kanji Nirvana too (and had some font issues that I eventually resolved). So she has two programs to play with.

Thanks again

Felipe

 

[johnny_a]

I'm using OZ on my Z's so I can't test it now. However taking a quick look at it I see that there are two binarys in /bin but only one is executable. So you could try:

Code: [Select]

chmod +x /opt/QtPalmtop/bin/kpenginesee if that works?
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Thanks for noticing that, I'm uploading an updated tarball now.

[howdouknow]

Wow, great work johnny_a. This is exactly what i was looking for
Are you still working on this or will the ipk be the last release?

Anyway  - thanks a lot man, very useful tool

[johnny_a]

I'll probably be developing this program for a long time since I use it a lot myself. I'm glad you find it useful. The next version will be a lot nicer (I know how to fix most bugs, just have to find the time) and with online help.

[rolf]

ZNarau is a kanji and vocabulary reference and training program for students of Japanese.

Wow, great.  I have been looking for something like this for ages.  

Would you be interested to integrate this into the gakusei community that was created specifically as a focal point to distribute things that make life easier for the student of Japanese.  I created this community in the hope to interconnect the various individual projects floating around and reach critical mass for them.

What license is your software released under?  Do you release the source?  If it is free software I can try and integrate it into OpenZaurus which is what I use.  What language are you programming in and what windowing widget?

[johnny_a]

ZNarau is a kanji and vocabulary reference and training program for students of Japanese.

Wow, great.  I have been looking for something like this for ages.  

Would you be interested to integrate this into the gakusei community that was created specifically as a focal point to distribute things that make life easier for the student of Japanese.  I created this community in the hope to interconnect the various individual projects floating around and reach critical mass for them.

What license is your software released under?  Do you release the source?  If it is free software I can try and integrate it into OpenZaurus which is what I use.  What language are you
 programming in and what windowing widget?
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I checked your page and it seems that we have pretty much the same goals.

I've been working hard the last few days to finish version 1.0. As soon as I get it to work nicely on both small and large Zauruses in both landscape and portrait mode, I'll switch focus to creating a little webpage for the program where ipk and source can be downloaded. It's released under the GPL, and it uses the normal Zaurus API; Qt Embedded / Qtopia. It's important to me that it work on stock Z's, but of course it should be available for Open Zaurus too - in fact, I would have it running on OZ right now if I could just get the toolchain to work

It'd be great if joining your community could help me find others interested in working on the program!

[rolf]

I checked your page and it seems that we have pretty much the same goals.

great, let's collaborate so we get more things done and faster.

in fact, I would have it running on OZ right now if I could just get the toolchain to work

Let me know where you have problems and maybe I can help you set things up.  Maybe you can also let me have you current sources and I will start working on the bb file.

It'd be great if joining your community could help me find others interested in working on the program!

Let's see what happens.  If you already have an account with sourceforge let me know about it and I will add you to the dev team.  Let me know about your ideas on where to take the project.  This shall be a project open for suggestions.

[rolf]

Oh, by the way.  What language have you written your program in? C, perl, python, ...?

[johnny_a]

Oh, by the way.  What language have you written your program in? C, perl, python, ...?
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C++.

I'm reworking some of the code right now so it can't be compiled at the moment, but I will have it fixed up by the end of the week. I'll register an account on sourceforge (or try to remember my last one ) and get back to you.

Edit: by the way, did you see my post about v 0.9? I released an installable ipk so if you want to out the program, just download it. Though that ipk probably won't work on OpenZaurus...