shibole Posted October 22, 2007 at 03:10 PM Report Share Posted October 22, 2007 at 03:10 PM Right now for windows I'm using: Anki - seems to be the best SRS flashcard program DimSum - handwriting recognition to check my ability to write characters when using Anki estroke - stroke order lookup zhongwen.com/book - etymology Pera-kun (web browser popup tool) Now if only there were a way to easily integrate all of these. For example: Have Anki use the handwriting recognition in DimSum to check flashcard answers Have DimSum use estroke instead of the incomplete stroke order thing it's using now Have DimSum lookup characters on zhongwen.com and display in a web view pane in the dictionary tab along with what it currently shows click-to-add dictionary words in DimSum as Anki facts A screen (or even just web browser) popup tool for looking up words and adding them as Anki facts That would totally kick ass! What would your dream tool be? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chinesetools Posted October 23, 2007 at 12:35 AM Report Share Posted October 23, 2007 at 12:35 AM # Have DimSum use estroke instead of the incomplete stroke order thing it's using now Is the e-stroke data available for other programs to use? # Have DimSum lookup characters on zhongwen.com and display in a web view pane in the dictionary tab along with what it currently shows This is doable. # click-to-add dictionary words in DimSum as Anki facts I'll have to look up what this means. The DimSum discussion board is at http://www.chinesecomputing.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shibole Posted October 23, 2007 at 01:30 AM Author Report Share Posted October 23, 2007 at 01:30 AM An Anki "fact" is something like: 你好 nǐhǎo hello With the Mandarin "model", this fact would be used to generate two "cards" like: 1. Question: "hello" Answer: 你好, nǐhǎo 2. Question: 你好 Answer: nǐhǎo, hello Other models might take facts with more than 3 fields and generate other cards, but Mandarin is all I care about right now. As for an API for doing this, I don't know if Anki supports one directly on the local machine without manually importing them from a file, but it might be possible to upload facts to the web-based Anki service which can then be Sync'd with the local version of Anki. It's a bit roundabout but would probably work if the web API is available and sounds like less trouble than an import operation. I'll check out the DimSum forums. So far I think I like DimSum better than software with similar functionality. I should see whether these things are open source and if so pitch in to help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imcgraw Posted October 23, 2007 at 04:01 AM Report Share Posted October 23, 2007 at 04:01 AM What, no speech recognition? :-) Check out this demo video . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stephanhodges Posted October 23, 2007 at 10:42 AM Report Share Posted October 23, 2007 at 10:42 AM eStroke from eon basically takes anything from the clipboard, and then draws the characters one after the other. If you put only one character on the clipboard, then it will leave that character up on the screen, and you can redraw (animation style) as my times as you want by pressing the enter key, I believe. It also can generate a picture with the entire stroke sequence, and is highly customizable for formatting, etc. Lots of other options. The author is very open to adding new features, etc. if you explain what and why. At least, they've added several items over the last year that I asked for! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
novemberfog Posted October 23, 2007 at 12:49 PM Report Share Posted October 23, 2007 at 12:49 PM I would be happy with just a reliable mouse input system for characters that works the same in both Windows and OS X. Such a tool is available for Japanese (ATOK), and I wish there was one for Chinese that would work with both traditioinal characters and simplified. Then again I have been holding out on a decent pinyin (not hanin!!) based pinyin system for OS X since version 10.2. That does not seem to be happening anytime soon.... I love my PlecoDict. It is everything that all of my others tool cannot be (except for my paper dictionary as it has so many entries). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gato Posted October 25, 2007 at 04:43 AM Report Share Posted October 25, 2007 at 04:43 AM I would be happy with just a reliable mouse input system for characters that works the same in both Windows and OS X. Hanwang (whose handwriting recognition software is used by PlecoDict) makes one for Windows, but you are unlikely to find similar software for OS X, at least developed by a Chinese company, since extremely few people in China use Macs. Macs used to be much more expensive than Windoze machines, but I guess they are not any more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shibole Posted October 25, 2007 at 05:07 AM Author Report Share Posted October 25, 2007 at 05:07 AM Speaking of handwriting recognition, does anyone know of a cheap graphics tablet that works with the handwriting recognition in windows? Either that or a cheap tablet with some cheap windows handwriting recognition software.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gato Posted October 25, 2007 at 05:55 AM Report Share Posted October 25, 2007 at 05:55 AM Either that or a cheap tablet with some cheap windows handwriting recognition software.... I use a Wacom graphics tablet, mostly as an ergonomically-improved mouse. It's easily on your hand and wrist holding a pen rather than a mouse. As for a handwriting recognition software, I just downloaded the 飘雪智能手写辨识系统 (Snow Smart Handwriting Recognition System) after seeing your question. It works as a Chinese IME under Windows and its accuracy seems to be very good. Give it a shot. http://www.skycn.com/soft/21284.html 飘雪智能手写辨识系统 V3.0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pandaxiongmao Posted October 25, 2007 at 01:13 PM Report Share Posted October 25, 2007 at 01:13 PM Then again I have been holding out on a decent pinyin (not hanin!!) based pinyin system for OS X since version 10.2. That does not seem to be happening anytime soon.... According to http://groups.google.com/group/chinesemac/browse_thread/thread/eab6c4ee003fafcb there are new pinyin and zhuyin methods in Mac OS 10.5. You can input traditional Chinese using the Pinyin method. You can also enter pinyin plus tone number (I am guessing kind of like Wenlin). Unfortunately, the promised Chinese voice support promised in the Mac OS X Leopard preview pages is nowhere to be seen in the release copy of Leopard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shibole Posted October 25, 2007 at 04:04 PM Author Report Share Posted October 25, 2007 at 04:04 PM chinesetools: I just noticed that DimSum is Java and was looking at your jar file. Why not make it open source and join forces with ZDT? If nothing else I'd be willing to help add features to DimSum including the one below (assuming it's possible). Also, regarding eStroke, the data seems to be in a bunch of files but I'm assuming the format isn't opensince they'd be less able to enforce licensing that way. eStroke does support drag-and-drop of characters, so if it were possible to generate a drag-and-drop event in eStroke from within DimSum you could probably add some sort of "use eStroke" preference checkbox and cause the show stroke order button to "call" estroke. I'm unsure what AWT or whatever else can do in this regard, and unfortunately eStroke is Windows-specific.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnmck Posted October 25, 2007 at 04:52 PM Report Share Posted October 25, 2007 at 04:52 PM For those with a laptop here is an interesting way to use your touchpad as a graphics tablet. http://www.metacafe.com/watch/777196/2_mini_graphics_tablet/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hong XQ Posted August 15, 2009 at 09:41 AM Report Share Posted August 15, 2009 at 09:41 AM Have Anki use the handwriting recognition in DimSum to check flashcard answers In the end I think the division of labor has been well thought through (not talking about complex tasks like automatic translation of chunks of text), so taking the best basic bricks is probably a nice way around. I agree with you on Anki's coolness, in particular, presentation of the cards mixing up the sides in one same review is cool, as are the many degrees of marking. It turns out I want to do something requiring two bricks: I'm trying to setup something to revise hsk vocab so that -I get asked meaning and pinyin and have to draw the character -if I draw (or select from suggestions:roll: ) it wrong, flashing red light goes off and Anki marks a fail. -if I draw it right, I can grade myself as to how easy it was. The presence of the suggestion table really makes it messy: it's getting in the way of the exercise by trying to help, in a sense. It seems nciku vocab tests come close to flashcards-cum-hwr; only they don't give you the pinyin alongside meaning! (and they haven't got bells and flashing lights implemented yet:) It sounds silly, but since I choose to believe in spaced repetition, can't I keep my old creed on conditioning alongside?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imron Posted August 15, 2009 at 10:47 AM Report Share Posted August 15, 2009 at 10:47 AM Sounds like you probably want Skritter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tooironic Posted August 16, 2009 at 02:39 AM Report Share Posted August 16, 2009 at 02:39 AM I'm pretty sure Wenlin can do 90 percent of those things... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hong XQ Posted August 16, 2009 at 04:57 AM Report Share Posted August 16, 2009 at 04:57 AM (edited) @imron: Thanks a lot! Skritter is exactly what I was thinking of, complete with Pavlovian flashing lights and 'approval' of tts voice. What's more, I like how they solved the problem of hwr-selection being a help by having your strokes slightly shift into place if deemed right and vanish if too far.Now to cram like crazy @tooironic: I like what I see of wenlin, only I'm not sure how to rapidly import/select an hsk vocab list into its flashcard program. I suppose the built-in lists and hsk coincide quite closely though.. All in all I agree with your 90% figure and the abundance of great tools. Edited August 16, 2009 at 06:05 AM by Hong XQ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L-F-J Posted August 17, 2014 at 05:24 PM Report Share Posted August 17, 2014 at 05:24 PM Got Dimsum for Mac and it does what I need it to. Just wondering about the keyboard shortcut to save a file I'm editing. It says ^S, but I don't know what key ^ refers to... I tried command+S, control+S, etc., and it doesn't seem to do anything. Anyone know? It would just be convenient. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imron Posted August 18, 2014 at 02:14 AM Report Share Posted August 18, 2014 at 02:14 AM ^S should be Control+s. If it's not working, then that's a separate problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L-F-J Posted August 18, 2014 at 09:03 AM Report Share Posted August 18, 2014 at 09:03 AM Yeah, it seems to be working. Don't know what I was doing wrong before. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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