Improved Flashcard Program (Windows)
penben
July 31, 2008, 05:30 PM posted in General DiscussionI have written a flashcard program for myself because the Chinesepod one wasn't fitting my needs. I'm at a point where I can share it if anybody would like it. However, I don't have a site to put it up to, so if anybody has a place I could put it for download, let me know.
Here's what you get:
1. Intelligent word choice: As you get words right, you'll see them less and less. If you're getting them wrong, you'll see them more often. Once you have "learned" a word, you will see it only extremely rarely.
2. Testing based on Chinese, English, or Pinyin. Both Simplified and Traditional are supported.
3. Vocab Editor. Although it is a bit rough at this point, you can manually edit, add, or subtract vocabulary.
4. Smart import. To populate your vocab in the program, export your vocab list to XML. Then import that file from the File menu of the program. The import will eliminate any duplicate entries, where both chinese and english are the same. This way you can import new words on top of what you already have and it won't duplicate your library.
Please note: Chinesepod's export feature occasionally exports faulty words. My software will let you know the line of the error, and you have to go in and either delete the word or fix the problem before you can successfully import. Chinesepod has let me know this problem is on their list to fix.
Here's what it doesn't do:
1. Sound. I haven't figured out how to get that to work yet.
2. Go Back. Because of the learning nature of the program, it is not practical to offer the back or previous feature
penben
August 04, 2008, 11:30 AMSomething I do for convenience is put the app on a flashkey, and run it from there. This way I can bring my flashcards between home and work and have the program remember which words I've mastered and which ones I still need help on.
penben
August 01, 2008, 01:00 PMCalkins,
To be honest I haven't the slightest idea about writing software for Macs, so it is not likely to work for you. In its current version, the zip is only 10k. It wouldn't take up much space.
lostinasia
August 01, 2008, 01:04 PMCalkins, you probably know about this already, but iFlash is a fantastic flashcard program for Macs. It looks like there's a 15-day free trial as well.
Mind you, as far as I know iFlash can't do a smart import - and that would be sweet. Most of the time I spend adding cards to my deck seems to be spent confirming whether or not the card's already in there.
And penben, you may be really on to something here: judging by comments in iFlash's blogs, there really don't seem to be any good PC flashcard programs around. Good luck!
penben
August 01, 2008, 01:19 PMLost, this version is very specific to ChinesePod's xml format (so it is limited in that respect). But I was having a really hard time before I put in the smart input. Basically I'd wipe everything I had before and insert everything anew. And then I'd lose all my word rankings and every word would be as common as any other again! Hence the feature.
calkins
August 01, 2008, 12:34 PMPenben, sounds like a great little progam. I would definitely be interested in trying it out, but I use Macs. Any idea if it'd work on a Mac?
What's the size of the zip file? If it's not too big, I'd be willing to put it on my server.
lostinasia
August 01, 2008, 01:56 PMCalkins, what works for me:
- make my own copy of the transcript from the html file, using TextEdit
- Cut and paste from TextEdit into iFlash
RJ
August 01, 2008, 11:56 PMThanks Penben - I am using your program. Looks good. Between you and acorrigan, you have greatly enhanced the cpod experience. Thanks again to both of you.
RJ
penben
August 02, 2008, 03:35 AMRJ, Thanks, I'm glad it is working for you so far.
calkins
August 01, 2008, 01:50 PMLost, thanks for the link, I will check this out.
I would love to use something like Penben's program, that would convert my CPod vocab. into traditional. It's a hodgepodge of simp. and trad. right now.
There used to be an import feature in the vocab. section, where you could export your vocab. as XML...then convert the characters to traditional...then import it back into the vocabulary manager. But that feature dissapeared months ago.
Penben, I'll send you a message so you can email me the zip file...
penben
August 01, 2008, 11:45 AMFor the moment if you want to try out the program message your email to me and I'll zip it up and send it to you. If somebody is nice enough to give me a place to share it from, I'll certainly post the link.