Flash Card Program For Testing Vocabulary?

[kurochka]

It appears that there are no hotkeys defined.  It would be nice to have:

R - for Right (known)
W - for Wrong (unknown)
S - for See (hint)

This way you could go through a quiz with one thumb and keep the other hand free.

It would also be nice to be able to import study lists in a simplified format for example mioFlash format (I have study lists in that format already):

買う/かう/ to buy/comment
歩く/あるく/ to walk
急ぐ/いそぐ/ to hurry
貸す/かす/ to lend
待つ/まつ/ to wait
死ぬ/しぬ/ to die

or anything that simple.

It would be much easier to create/convert study lists that way.

[Frederic Bergeron]

As I understand, the file to be imported must be preformatted in the toMOTko format, correct?  Does it support any other flashcard formats?

Not at the moment but I'm open to suggestions.

Sometimes when I close the application, it tells me that there is something wrong with permissions and it could not save the changes.  I guess this is because I did not use the import function and just hand copied the study list in the hidden directory, right?

Probably.  

You can change the permissions manually like this :

Code: [Select]

zaurus$ cd ~/.toMOTko
zaurus$ chown zaurus.qpe your-glossary-file.xml
zaurus$ chmod 644 your-glossary-file.xml
Also, you could export your glossary file and import it back into a different folder.  It's cleaner and it will set the links properly with the other files (tree.xml, marked.xml).

I also noticed that my selection of words for quizzes is not saved sometimes when I close the application.  I have to tick off the words again after I open the program.  But this is not always.  This could be connected to the permissions problem above.  However, I don't see where in the study list files the selection info is saved.  I have not touched any other files.

I'm not sure but it could be a side-effect of not importing the glossary files properly or possibly wrong id sequence for your terms.  Other files like tree.xml and marked.xml use the id field for references.  If the same id is used twice, this can provoke strange behavior.

If you ever want to start from scratch, close toMOTko, remove (or just rename it if you want to keep a backup) .toMOTko directory and launch toMOTko.  This will create a brand new and clean .toMOTko directory.  You can then import your glossary files.  This reduces the risk of data corruption caused by manual manipulations.

I've made a separate file for the words from the first five lessons.  It's still big.  Here is a bug that I noticed (once), when the quiz was 13% complete, it said that I finished all the items although I have not gone through all the words.  I will see if this repeats itself (it takes a while to get to 13% of this study list

If you find a way to reproduce it systematically, send me your .toMOTko directory and the steps to trigger the bug.  I didn't encounter such a bug so far with 0.4.2 and I'm using it daily.

I guess that your program can be used for any language (or anything else for that matter) even though it would still say English, Japanese, furigana.  Furigana can be used for pronunciation.  Comment field is great, since I can put examples and grammatical info about the word.

Yes, it can but it's not very clean to abuse the format like that.  Also the interface should be improved to handle other languages explicitly.

Actually, I noticed that a word ID in the list does not have to start with "0" (when I split the original file, I didn't retag the word ID for the second file).  This is good news since I can just split big study lists without retagging them.

Yeah, probably it doesn't matter so much but one thing that is important is that the term id must be unique for each term in a glossary file.  Also, glossary id should be unique for all the glossaries.

Oh, the icon is not very descriptive of what the program does.  Well, I have nothing against well-bosomed ladies but still :-)

I thought long time about the icon but the concept of acquiring vocabulary is rather abstract and boring.  Most of such applications use icons like a book or a drawer...  詰まらないと考えた...  So I imagined that a well-endowed kawaii lady would be better (more distinct and provocative ;-).  There are some details about that on the website.

[Frederic Bergeron]

It appears that there are no hotkeys defined.  It would be nice to have:

R - for Right (known)
W - for Wrong (unknown)
S - for See (hint)

This way you could go through a quiz with one thumb and keep the other hand free.

It's on the todo list but it was low priority.  But if you ask for it, I may implement it sooner.

It would also be nice to be able to import study lists in a simplified format for example mioFlash format (I have study lists in that format already):

買う/かう/ to buy/comment
歩く/あるく/ to walk
急ぐ/いそぐ/ to hurry
貸す/かす/ to lend
待つ/まつ/ to wait
死ぬ/しぬ/ to die

or anything that simple.

As I want to keep the application's size as small as possible, I don't want to integrate such functionality into toMOTko.  However, some separate conversion utility programs could be provided.  I could also provide a web front-end to do such a task so no hassles for installing, configuring and executing the conversion application.

[Frederic Bergeron]

For your information, I put one of my glossary file here.  I will put others when I have some free time.

[kurochka]

Thank you once again, Frederic.

I have been using your app non-stop since I have converted my Genki study lists.  I have not come across "early finish" bug yet.  Works great!  I will submit my Genki study lists once I have worked out all the kinks from them.

I agree that a web or desktop-based conversion utility is a far better approach than clogging the program itself.  It could be a simple command line program unless other people protest.

If you don't mind my asking for new stuff, here is another idea.  You may just ignore it. Additional revealing orders in settings could be useful: English -> Comments -> furigana -> Japanese or Furigana -> Comments -> Japanese.

This way you could add mnemonics for the kanji in comments and review them before you see the Japanese word.  This will work well with hotkeys.  So far, I can just tap one the comment to reveal it before anything else.  Again, this is a minor point that you may just ignore.

[Frederic Bergeron]

I agree that a web or desktop-based conversion utility is a far better approach than clogging the program itself.  It could be a simple command line program unless other people protest.

If I have time, I will do the MioFlash2ToMOTko conversion service this week-end.  I think it's simple (and fun) to do.  

If you don't mind my asking for new stuff, here is another idea.  You may just ignore it. Additional revealing orders in settings could be useful: English -> Comments -> furigana -> Japanese or Furigana -> Comments -> Japanese.

This way you could add mnemonics for the kanji in comments and review them before you see the Japanese word.  This will work well with hotkeys.  So far, I can just tap one the comment to reveal it before anything else.  Again, this is a minor point that you may just ignore.
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That's not a bad idea.  I wrote it on the todo list.  I will do it eventually.  

Thanks for the feedback.  It's very appreciated.

[kurochka]

I thought long time about the icon but the concept of acquiring vocabulary is rather abstract and boring.  Most of such applications use icons like a book or a drawer...  詰まらないと考えた...  So I imagined that a well-endowed kawaii lady would be better (more distinct and provocative ;-).  There are some details about that on the website.
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I've read the explanation on the website.  Fun, fun, fun!  Right from the beginning, I got that MOT is a "word" from French.  Je comprend le Francais en peu mais je manque la pratique. J'ai oublie beaucoup des choses du temps ou j'apprenais le Francais.

I am not even sure if what I wrote in French is comprehensible   I don't have a French keyboard layout installed for accents.

[kurochka]

I will be converting the kanji study lists from http://alex.2net.at/j-flash.html

Here is the first example.

[Frederic Bergeron]

I've completed the MioFlash2ToMOTko converter.  Check it out here.  Tell me if it works well.

Here is the code of the backend script (implemented in Ruby) :

Code: [Select]

#!/usr/bin/ruby -KU

glossaryName = 'New glossary'

termId = 1

puts ""
puts ""

while( line = gets )
    line.chomp!
    kanji, furigana, english, comment = line.split( %r{\s*/\s*} )

    if( kanji || furigana || english )
        puts "  "
        if( english )
            puts "    "
            puts "      " + english + ""
            puts "    "
        end
        if( kanji || furigana )
            puts "    "
            puts "      " + kanji + "" if( kanji )
            puts "      " + furigana + "" if( furigana )
            puts "      " + comment + "" if( comment )
        end
        puts "    "
        puts "  "
    end

    termId += 1
end

puts ""

[Frederic Bergeron]

I've read the explanation on the website.  Fun, fun, fun!  Right from the beginning, I got that MOT is a "word" from French.  Je comprend le Francais en peu mais je manque la pratique. J'ai oublie beaucoup des choses du temps ou j'apprenais le Francais.

I am not even sure if what I wrote in French is comprehensible   I don't have a French keyboard layout installed for accents.

Your French is not bad at all.  

Thanks for the glossary file from j-flash.  Would you give me the permission to put your glossary files on the website of toMOTko?  This way, other people could use them.  If you agree, I would also mention your "name" (kurochka or something else and/or your email?)

[kurochka]

Wow, you are fast.

Yes, all files that I put here you can post on your website.  I am still improving the Genki lists so you may hold on with that one.

I've played with your icon and here is what I have come up with.  I think this one is better.  I made the colors richer.  It is 64X64 and has a transparent background.  What are the names of other pics you use in the program?  Are they in the pics directory?

[Frederic Bergeron]

I've added other of my glossaries here.  The zip files contain several small glossary files so if you want to take a look at them, it's better to put them in their own folder before the import.

[kurochka]

Conversion script works fine.  I've sent you, Frederic, some study lists that you can post on your site.

[Frederic Bergeron]

I've played with your icon and here is what I have come up with.  I think this one is better.  I made the colors richer.  It is 64X64 and has a transparent background.  What are the names of other pics you use in the program?  Are they in the pics directory?
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Thanks.  I agree.  I may modify it slightly but I think it's looking better. I will integrate the new icon in the next release.

The other images are integrated in the executable itself for efficiency reasons.  If you want to take a look at them, you better get them from the subversion repository in the src/icons directory.   The images are encoded in xpm format.  You probably won't be able to open them with Photoshop but with Gimp, it should be ok. If you're not familiar with subversion, tell me and I will send you an archive containing all the pictures.

Conversion script works fine. I've sent you, Frederic, some study lists that you can post on your site.

Another thanks for testing the conversion script!  

I tried to import all the glossaries you sent me.  I could not import Kanji101-200 because there was some termination tags missing in the file.  I fixed that.  Also I had problems with Genki_13/15/17/19/21.  I don't know why at the moment but I will check it out this afternoon.  

Anyway... I have to say: "Wow!!"  That makes a lot of words to learn

[kurochka]

Also I had problems with Genki_13/15/17/19/21.  I don't know why at the moment but I will check it out this afternoon.
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I think I know why.  The files are in UTF-8 with Signature (there is some sort of data/symbol at the beginning of the file).  toMOTko does not like that.  It can take UTF-8 *without* Signature.