ZDT: Most annoying things about the ZDT

[jbradfor]

Very few things about ZDT annoy me, which is pretty amazing for a free program. Thanks Chris!

However, my #1 annoying thing is that when I search the dictionary, it refuses to remember that I like to sort by pinyin, so each time I need to re-sort. Minor, but annoying.

Two thoughts on other comments:

TapioT writes:

For me the most annoying thing is the scoring algorithm - if I

understood it correctly, that is. I like to dump any new words that

I see to ZDT and then start learning them whenever I have time. As a

result, before I get a word right, I may have to see it in ZDT

perhaps 10 times. The default algorithm is that every wrong answer

adds -2 to the score of that word, which means that I then have to

type it correctly 20 times before I get back to the starting

point. Or this is at least how I understood the algorithm.

I agree with that too; however, I would prefer that rather a TCP-like algorithm, there would be a "minimum value" the score can go, say -5. That way no matter how many times I got it wrong, once I start to get it right it takes only 5 times to become non-negative.

peterjez writes:

7. Here's a far out idea: what if I could enter in some text and then

ZDT automatically extract flash cards for me. For example, maybe I

read an online article that I want to study. Then I input all the

article's text and then ZDT could extract all the relevant words

(maybe based on your own scores of words, or frequency that the

word appears in the language).

I don't think it's far out: in fact, I suggested such an idea at http://forum.chinesepod.com/viewtopic.php?t=2208 You might want to read that note, there are a couple of suggestions on how to do something similar.

[Chinese Learner]

For me the ultimate 'add-on' that would make ZDT the best learning program around would be to have an option that when enabled allowed chinese words to be spoken when the flashcards came up. I know you have the add-on for PCs with a few sounds recorded but I run a Mac.

Whenever I want to hear what a word sounds like I now got to:

http://hua.umf.maine.edu/php/search.php?eng=&p_input=&c_input=&search_limit=1&search_type=exact

What's great with this site is that they have recordings of at least 3-5 native chinese speakers saying all the words and phrases - so you can hear how different people pronounce the same word.

Maybe you could contact the University of Maine and ask if they might donate their sound files to your program - I don't see why they would say no considering that you are not charging people for your program.

http://hua.umf.maine.edu/Chinese/credits.html

Really, if you added sound, ZDT would be even more amazing than it already is!!

[jbradfor]

Chinese Learner, look at http://zdt.sourceforge.net/main/sound_plugin/ ; does that not do what you want? They work for me under linux, so I would assume the work under a mac too?

[bogleg]

Hi ChineseLearners,

Thanks for pointing out this site. It definitely won't hurt to ask.

The sound plugins should work on every platform. (Windows, Mac, or Linux) And I know it runs on a Mac since that's my main system. Anyway, it probably means it didn't get installed properly. Make sure you've copied the sound plugin .jar file into your ZDT_DIR/plugins directory. If you're running a 0.7.0 release build, then you can enable it by going to Window > Preferences... > Sound and select the plugin you've installed. Let me know if you're still having problems.

Chris

[thph2006]

I've put a whole bunch of recorded phrases/words in itunes, added pictures representing the phrases as album art and added the hanzi and pinyin as album and song names in the mp3 tags. Then I play them as a playlist in the cover flow mode (which displays album cover art and title while playing a song). It sounds like a mess but what you end up with is a set of multimedia flash cards that will automatically play one after another, showing the picture, text and playing the speech. It's a kludge but works great and is extremely useful especially as a rapid-fire refresher of words and phrases you've previously learned (but often times later forgotten).

itunes isn't the right solution for that, but zdt would be great if it could be accommodated. The zdt flashcard database structure would need to have new fields for an mp3 sound byte and a jpg picture for each entry. The flashcard mode should then be able to display some combination of picture/sound/text based on check-box settings. It should support the same testing features as the current version, but with the ability to be tested based on sound-only, text-only, picture-only prompts or any combination. It should also have a fire hose setting that allows a card to be displayed every x seconds so you can go through them rapid-fire. That would be ideal for me!

[drahnier]

What I'm mising is a possibility to drag items from the director directly into a category:

[cwmccabe]

Nothing annoying at all, but here's a few modifications I think would improve the app:

1. Allow characters to be associated with more than one pinyin spelling. For example, if 谁 comes up as a flashcard, I'd like to be able to type either shéi or shuí and have either be counted as correct.

2. Don't redisplay a flashcard immediately after I got it wrong. When I get a flashcard incorrect, it should be weighted so that it doesn't reappear within the next 5 (or so) cards, unless I'm within 5 (or so) of the final card in the stack. But maybe some people like having error-cards reappear quickly, so you might be able to add an option in the preferences: "[yes/no], allow cards you got wrong to reappear immediately."

3. Allow flashcards to be copied with the same contextual menu as in the editor and dictionary. For example, when I'm looking at a card, I'd like to have the option of (a) copy all, (B) copy character, © copy pinyin, etc. This way I could make an on-the-fly set of cards from a subset of the larger one I'm looking at. (I could do this already, of course, by searching in the editor or dictionary, then copy/pasting into a new category. But allowing to copy from a flashcard would be faster.)

4. Allow ellipses and other non-Hanzi characters in the Hanzi fields. For example, I would like to have a card with 除了…以外 (chú le ... yǐ wài). I'd like this because I want to have flashcards for phrases, not just characters and compound words.

This is a great program, so thanks for all your hard work on it! I hope these suggestions are useful.

[bogleg]

Hi cwmccabe,

I will see what I can do about 1) and 3). What version of ZDT are you using because 2) and 4) already exist in 0.7.0 beta 3 and later.

Chris

[cwmccabe]

I'm on 0.6.1, so maybe it's time for me to upgrade.

One other modification I think would be useful:

5. Allow mistakes on flashcards to be ignored. Sometimes I accidentally mistype the pinyin for a card, even though I know it very well. But when I commit this typo, it messes up the stats for that card, and the card is then later included in Smart Filtered sets when it shouldn't be. A solution to this would be an option on missed cards saying "disregard" or "ignore error", so it doesn't get recorded in the stats as a mistake.

[F_Kal]

It would be nice to be able to see the statistics, or your progress like eg.in Anki you can. It keeps you motivated

Some graph-views in pop-ups, some progress-bars next to every category. Numbers are ok, but graphs, work best for people!

[shibole]

The most annoying thing to me about ZDT is the fact that it's based on the Eclipse framework and thus it's kind of huge Python is the answer!

[bogleg]

Well, each language/framework choice has its pluses and minuses. And the fact that I know Java better than Python made it a no brainer for me. I agree that the Eclipse framework does add some additional footprint, but it does provide useful UI infrastructure that I wouldn't have wanted to write myself from scratch. Plus I had always envisioned ZDT being able to evolve into more than just a flashcard program, and the framework's extensibility will be a big plus in achieving that.

Chris

[cwmccabe]

Yet another suggestion, not an annoyance.

I would find it helpful if the ZDT format had an additional field for short written mnemonics for characters. When flipping through flashcards, there could then be a button to toggle on/off the visibility of these mnemonics. For me, using these mnemonic speeds up the memorization process immensely.

For example, Tienzen Gong's book suggests this mnemonic for the word 看:

看 (looking) is 手 (hand) over the 目 (eyes).

An editable mnemonic field along with the traditional [tab] simplified [tab] pinyin [tab] definition data for vocabulary entry would be really useful.

[bogleg]

Hi Carl,

Yeah, that's a good idea. One of the features I want to get to in the next version is the ability to attach user defined things to an entry, like pictures, sounds and/or notes. So I think that would fit in there.

Chris

[Rrina]

Hi.. very useful program.

I haven't been using it for very long but it's been extremely helpful already. My suggestion is similar to Carl's - I'd like to be able to add comments or additional information to each word/character without having to see those comments when I have a test or look at the category.

For instance I'd like to be able to make a note about the type of word it is (stative verb, adverb, etc..), or the measure word that goes with a particular noun.

Thanks for all your work on this!

[Radial]

Another suggestions... is it possible to utilize a chinese/chinese database... I am getting to a point where I don't want to have english definitions... but I still like doing the flashcards.

Thanks again for all your work on this.

[bogleg]

Is there one available that you have in mind that I could freely use?

Chris

[Radial]

Good question... there must be some downloadable chinese:chinese dictionaries available...

[simon_w]

Hi - just begun using this program, but I think I'll be continuing. Looks great, thanks.

I'd like to make a suggestion which I think is raised in an old thread, but I don't think it'd be too big a job and so I'd like to second it:

make it possible to apply the filters when exporting word-lists, especially for exporting to the (very handy) 'writing' format.

Otherwise, really enjoying this program so far. Would also be very interested in the ChinesePod plugin mentioned earlier in this thread.

Great stuff!

Simon

[simon_w]

Okay - I have a couple more...

(一) It seems that when I try to import vocab from a text file, ZDT won't add anything it can't find it the dictionary, even if "use definitions from imported file" is selected. Whilst the warning that what I'm trying to add isn't in the dictionary is welcome, I'd like it to go ahead and add anyway.

(二) I can't get the vocab import function to successfully parse anything which is tab-delimited *or* '/'-delimited, so I've been converting stuff to semi-colons. And I don't know if it can handle HTML-encoded entities for pinyin tones (ī, ǎ etc.) because, of course, the semi-colons in the entity screw-up the parsing... So I've been converting the entities out too.

This second is not a big problem - being lazy I knocked up a VBS script to do both steps at once, but it would be mighty inconvenient if you had to do it by hand.

Just some (I hope) constructive feedback. So far I've tried and few of these programs, and I think this one will be the winner.

Thanks again,

Simon