Gauging interest in WLCP

jwlee
 September 08, 2011, 10:00 PM posted in General Discussion

Hi all,

I'd like to gauge how much interest there is in an improved, working version of WLCP.  My last contributions to the project were 2 years ago; since then and up until now, I haven't had the opportunity to pay attention to ChinesePod, let alone keep up with its new developments.  For all I know, WLCP is no longer needed, and I would be happy to hear that this is indeed the case.

Now that I have a bit more free time, I am considering updating WLCP, but this depends on the feedback I receive.  If you're interested in a new version, I would greatly appreciate hearing about your use cases -- it would help me to both know why you'd like a new version, as well as help me to design a new version if necessary:

  • what functionality has WLCP provided, or would you like it to provide, that the mainstream ChinesePod website does not offer?
  • what are (were) your WLCP usage patterns like?  Being specific would help -- do you have a routine that you follow for each lesson?  If you use it for both learning new lessons and reviewing old ones, how do your habits change?
  • in what environments do you use WLCP, and on what sort of computers?
  • any other specific information would be helpful, although general impressions would be good, too.

Thanks!

Jonathan

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jennyzhu
 September 09, 2011, 03:57 AM

Jonathan,

Thanks a lot for maintaining WLCP! We appreciate your work and support!

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RJ
 September 09, 2011, 07:51 AM

Hi Jon,

Hope you are well. Glad to hear you have some free time now. I suppose that means you finished the PhD? Abstract mathematics wasnt it? Some form of topology? Myself, I used wlcp to print expansion sentences because it allowed me to print them along with pinyin and literal translation without having to cut and paste my own word doc. wlcp also provided mp3 files of the expansion sentences bundled in such a way that they played each one three times with a response pause in between to allow time for recital. There were many other nice features related to simplified vs traditional and dictionary references. I think you will find the audience has changed in 2 years and wlcp always was a niche market. Not sure how popular it would be, but there are many here now that probably have never heard of wlcp. As far as I know wlcp is completely broken now and has been for some time.The fellow you handed it off to dropped it pretty quickly. So, is it worth the effort? I dont know, but I would use it. The problem will be as it always was, every time cpod makes a change it will likely require a fix to keep it running.

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sfrrr
 September 12, 2011, 02:46 AM

I would definitely use it again. In fact, for me, CPod has been much harder to use since WLCP broke. I'm not sure about the audience now--I haven't been paying a lot of attention to the communities here lately. But I think if we all talked about the software and how you use it, I'll bet a lot of people would be happy to use it.

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zhenkuaile
 September 19, 2011, 07:32 PM

I was a regular user of your program before and I really miss it. To be able to have everything downloaded to my computer and use it any place or time was so convienient. There are times when even at home i loose internet connection. With this program it does not matter. I still have complete access to all the lessons I have downloaded. I hope that you will work on an update. All of your hard work is very much appreciated. Thank you. :-)