Version 2008.09.14.testing

andrew_c

September 15, 2008, 04:12 AM posted in General Discussion

WeLoveChinesePod 2008.09.14.testing has been released for testing by advanced users. This release introduces significant new features.

HTML files are no longer produced. Instead, a single XML file is produced which contains all content including Key & Supplementary Vocabulary, Dialogue, and Expansion sentences. This XML uses XSLT and CSS to control how this content is presented to you. Advanced users can fully customize the presentation by editing welovechinesepod.xsl and welovechinesepod.css to their liking. These XML files appear in the root folder due to a security setting in Firefox involving accessing files from other directories.
The default XSLT stylesheet uses ruby character annotation. (Note, if you don't want to use these, feel free to edit welovechinesepod.xsl). The only browser I found that supports this well is Firefox 3 with the XHTML Ruby Support extension. For the content to display correctly you have to use this extension, which can be downloaded here, and you need to change the settings as follows: In Firefox: Tools->Add-ons, then click on the Preferences button for XHTML Ruby Support, then go to the Ruby Appearance tab, and then near the bottom select "Expand to Ruby height"
Video lessons more or less work now, without crashing due to the dialogue tab's absence.
Vocabulary mp3 files are downloaded and combined into a single mp3 file.

For more information see the WeLoveChinesePod web page.

If you accept the license and disclaimer at the bottom of the WeLoveChinesePod web page, then feel free to download WeLoveChinesePod 2008.09.14.testing

This new version is perhaps not as easy to use as previous versions, especially if you want to tweak the default styles. It may take a long time to make to software more easy to use. In the meantime, this version is for advanced users.

MuampHeadphones

October 20, 2008, 04:30 PM

Unfortunately - I studied Engineering and not programming or Chinese Language;

I should have listened to what my mother had once told me when I was a boy....

jane

October 06, 2008, 06:24 AM

something strange happened to the vocab.

Sorry about that. The bopomofo will fit perfectly if the characters are at 24 font with one space between it is at 9 font

Expansion

我買了一台新的飲水機

ㄨㄛˇ ㄇㄞˇ ㄌㄜ˙ 一ˉ ㄊㄞˊ ㄒ一ㄣˉ ㄉㄜ˙一ㄣˇㄕㄨㄟˇㄐ一ˉ。

I to buy 1 (MW for machines) new water cooler

I bought a new water cooler

飲水機在那兒

一ㄣˇㄕㄨㄟˇㄐ一ˉㄗㄞˋ ㄋㄚˋ ㄦ。

water cooler at there

The water cooler is over there.

你家裡有飲水機嗎？

ㄋ一ˇ ㄐ一ㄚˉ ㄌ一ˇ一ㄡˇ一ㄣˇ ㄕㄨㄟˇㄐ一ˉ ㄇㄚ˙

you at home to have water cooler?

Do you have a water cooler at home?

我家的咖啡機壞了

ㄨㄛˇ ㄐ一ㄚㄉㄜ˙ㄎㄚˉ ㄈㄟˉ ㄐ一ˉ ㄏㄨㄞˋ ㄌㄜ˙。

I home coffee machine to be broken

The coffee maker at my house is broken.

咖啡機有點髒

ㄎㄚˉ ㄈㄟˉ ㄐ一一ㄡˇ ㄉ一ㄢˇ ㄗㄤˉ。

coffee machine slightly dirty

The coffee maker is a bit dirty.

咖啡機裡加水了嗎？

ㄎㄚˉ ㄈㄟˉ ㄐ一ㄌ一ˇ ㄐ一ㄚㄕㄨㄟˇ ㄌㄜ˙ ㄇㄚ˙ ？

coffee machine inside to add water

Have you put water into the coffee maker?

那裡有一把椅子

ㄋㄚˋ ㄌ一ˇ 一ㄡˇ 一ˉ ㄅㄚˇ 一ˇ ㄗ˙ 。

in that place (mw for chairs) 1chair to have

There's a chair over there.

沒有椅子了

ㄇㄟˊ 一ㄡˇ ㄑ一ˇ ㄗ˙ ㄌㄜ˙ 。

to not have chair

There are no more chairs.

這把椅子舒服嗎？

ㄓㄜˋ ㄅㄚˋ ㄑ一ˇ ㄗ˙ ㄕㄨˉ ㄈㄨ˙ ㄇㄚ˙ ？

this (mw for chairs) chair comfortable

Is this chair comfortable?

訂書機裡有訂書釘嗎？

ㄉ一ㄥˋ ㄕㄨㄐ一ˉ ㄌ一ˇ 一ㄡˇ ㄉ一ㄥˋㄕㄨㄉ一ㄥˉㄇㄚ˙ ？

stapler inside to have staple

Are there staples in the stapler?

訂書機不見了

ㄉ一ㄥˋ ㄕㄨㄐ一ˉ ㄅㄨˋ ㄐ一ㄢˋ ㄌㄜ˙

stapler disappear 。

I can't find the stapler.

我可以用一下訂書機嗎？

ㄨㄛˇ ㄎㄜˇ 一ˇ ㄩㄥˋ 一ˉ ㄒ一ㄚˋㄉ一ㄥˋㄕㄨˉ ㄐ一ˉ ㄇㄚ˙ ？

I can to use stapler

Can I use the stapler for a bit?

書在桌子上

ㄕㄨˉ ㄗㄞˋ ㄓㄨㄛˉ ㄗ˙ ㄕㄤ˙ 。

book at table on

The book is on the table.

他的桌子很亂

ㄊㄚˉ ㄉㄜ˙ ㄓㄨㄛˉ ㄗ˙ ㄏㄣˇ ㄌㄨㄢˋ。

his desk very messy

His desk is very messy

這是誰的桌子？

ㄓㄜˋ ㄕˋ ㄕㄟˊ ㄉㄜ˙ㄓㄨㄛˉ ㄗ˙ ？

this to be whose desk

Whose desk is this?

辦公室裡的傳真機壞了。

ㄅㄢˋ ㄍㄨㄥˉ ㄕˋ ㄌ一ˇ ㄉㄜ˙ ㄔㄨㄢˊ ㄓㄣˉ ㄐ一ㄏㄨㄞˋ ㄌㄜ˙。

office inside fax machine to be broken

The office fax machine is broken.

我在用傳真機。

ㄨㄛˇ ㄗㄞˋ ㄩㄥˋㄔㄨㄢˊ ㄓㄣˉ ㄐ一ˉ。

I currently to use fax machine

I'm using the fax machine.

你有傳真機嗎？我可以發傳真給

ㄋ一ˇ 一ㄡˇ ㄔㄨㄢˊ ㄓㄣˉ ㄐ一ˉ ㄇㄚ˙ ？ㄨㄛˇ ㄎㄜˇ 一ˇ ㄈㄚㄔㄨㄢˊ ㄓㄣˉ ㄍㄟˇ

你

ㄋ一ˇ。

you to have fax machine? I can to send fax to give you

Do you have a fax machine? I can send you a fax.

複印機沒墨了。

ㄈㄨˋ 一ㄣˋ ㄐ一ˉ ㄇㄟˊ ㄇㄛˋ ㄌㄜ˙ 。

copier not to have ink

The photocopier is out of ink.

這台複印機好嗎？

ㄓㄜˋ ㄊㄞˊ ㄈㄨˋ 一ㄣˋ ㄐ一ˉ ㄏㄠˇ ㄇㄚ˙

this(mw machines) copier good

Is this a good photocopier?

複印機在哪裡？我想複印一點東西。ㄈㄨˋ 一ㄣˋ ㄐ一ˉ ㄗㄞˋㄋㄚˇ ㄌ一ˇ？ㄨㄛˇ ㄒ一ㄤˇㄈㄨˋ 一ㄣˋ 一ˉ ㄉ一ㄢˇ ㄉㄨㄥˉ ㄒ一˙ 。

copier at where ？I would like to copy a bit thing

Where is the photocopier? I want to photocopy something.

這是他的電腦。

ㄓㄜˋ ㄕˋ ㄊㄚˉ ㄉㄜ˙ㄉ一ㄢˋ ㄋㄠˇ。

this to be his computer 。

This is his computer

這台電腦不太好。

ㄓㄜˋㄊㄞˊ ㄉ一ㄢˋ ㄋㄠˇ ㄅㄨˋ ㄊㄞˋㄏㄠˇ。

this (mw machines) computer not too good 。

This computer is not so great.

你有電腦嗎？

ㄋ一ˇ 一ㄡˇㄉ一ㄢˋ ㄋㄠˇㄇㄚ˙ ？

you to have computer？

Do you have a computer?

給我一個麥克風。

ㄍㄟˇㄨㄛˇ 一ㄍㄜ˙ㄇㄞˋ ㄎㄜˋ ㄈㄥˉ 。

Give me a microphone.

to give me microphone 。

麥克風沒有聲音。

ㄇㄞˋ ㄎㄜˋ ㄈㄥㄇㄟˊ 一ㄡˇㄕㄥˉ 一ㄣˉ 。

microphone not to have sound 。

This microphone has no sound.

andrew_c

October 06, 2008, 01:07 PM

What happened to the vocab? One issue I'm aware of is that wlcp incorrectly converts pinyin to bopomofo for vocab ending in n and ng. If there are other issues you are observing, I'd be interested hearing about them.

I have your email from last Wednesday, but haven't had a chance to work on the stylesheets since then. Regarding font size, I suggest that you try editing the file welovechinesepod.css to make the fonts just the way you like them. Open welovechinesepod.css in Notepad. Its contents should looks like:

character { font-size: 1.75em; }
reading {font-size: 1.0em;}
annotation {font-size: 1.0em; }
idiomatic { font-style: italic; font-size: 0.75em; }
punctuation {font-size: 1.55em; }

The size is specified in a relative way here using "em", you may be able to instead, for example, write

character { font-size: 24pt; }

Whenever you make a change, make sure to save welovechinesepod.css and then refresh the document in Firefox to see the change.

jane

October 14, 2008, 10:49 AM

Andrew

When I said something happened to the vocabulary I meant that, when I pasted it into the post it changed into computer speak. In hindsight I should have left it that way for you.

Even the expansions did not display as I have them on my computer.

Since then, I have discovered that using the version 14/9/2008 the vocabulary won't paste into the manager, so I have to type it anyway. The good news is that having the bo po mo fo available is much faster that translating from pinyin first.

Another little quirk is that I cannot insert page numbers, not serious but puzzling.

I amended welvechinesepod.css as suggested but was not sure how to refresh the Firefox page. I clicked the icon that said reload page but the document looked the same. All these matters are minor, multiple lessons are downloading perfectly and I enjoy the improved learning experience.

Once again many thanks.

MuampHeadphones

October 19, 2008, 04:45 PM

Hi WLCP,

I have only just started playing with WLCP software and quite impressed, cheers Andrew. I really like the testing version!

I have a couple of points to feed back (but I certainly don't want it to sound like complaining). My comments may have already been mensioned, but,... on the self contained XML testing version, the VOCAB at the top misses pinyin out if the last character in the word in toneless. Also it would be nice to split the VOCAB words which are in one long line, to make it easier to read.

I have modified the CSS file and the XSL files to customize the layout for my own taste, using Firefox (with RUBY) on Windows XP.

(I am getting into Ubunto, but it is a slow migration).

MuampHeadphones

October 19, 2008, 04:59 PM

Mmmm... I was going to put my modified CSS and XSL out on the discussion now, but I need to put them on my uni website with a link. I am at home and cannot access the directory so I will include it later in the week if anyone is interested...?

andrew_c

September 28, 2008, 02:43 AM

Here is a stylesheet for traditional characters with bopomofo annotation: tb_welovechinesepod.xsl

Instructions: Download this file to the welovechinesepod_2008_09_14_testing folder. Delete the existing version of welovechinesepod.xsl. Then rename tb_welovechinesepod.xsl to welovechinesepod.xsl

I would like to encourage that everyone using this testing version shares any customized style sheets that they have created.

MuampHeadphones

October 19, 2008, 07:57 PM

Hi Andrew

A lesson which demonstrates the missing toneless Pinyin in vocab is "Elementary - Don't Litter". First occurance 'zen3me', 'me' is missing. Second occurance 'guan1xi', 'xi' is missing.

It appears that the XML code has two characters as one <character> item, so I guess the bug is in the python script.

Love the s/w. I will put my CSS and XSL on the site tomorrow. No big mods but I use colour.... and have changed the line spacing so it looks tidier on Firefox on XP.

I will now start experimenting with Python myself, I'm now addicted.

andrew_c

October 19, 2008, 09:11 PM

Hi Chen Hong Jie,

Thanks a lot for finding this bug. I just fixed it and a new release is on its way.

MuampHeadphones

October 20, 2008, 09:51 AM

Hi WLCP

Here is a link to download my modified CSS and XSL files.

http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~davidf/WLCP.htm

with a part of an example screen dump to show the result.

andrew_c

October 20, 2008, 12:48 PM

Thanks for sharing, I really like the coloring.

I also like how you dealt with the crowded vocabulary ;-)

MuampHeadphones

October 20, 2008, 01:12 PM

I like the colour scheme, since it helps me to read what I need quicker...

On Firefox / XP the lines were overlapping and this was the simplest way to space them out. Mmmm,... Unfortunately I am an Electronics engineer and not a Programmer, so my style of coding can be messy!

andrew_c

October 19, 2008, 06:18 PM

Hi Chen Hong Jie,

I'd definitely be interested in seeing your CSS and XSL! Also, the feedback is very much appreciated.

About the messed up pinyin in the vocab section. Is there a particular lesson that you noticed this problem with?

I agree about the vocab being in one line, Jane pointed a nice way to arrange it in two columns, I just haven't had a chance to try to modify the XSL to format it in such a nice way.