HànzìFlasher

[HarryCallahan]

Hi, I'm a programmer now in Beijing studying Chinese at a private school. As I often do I've applied my skill to help me solve a personal need, and hence I now bring you HanziFlasher.

It's basically a flash card application for Windows PC (sorry to PDA users large screen only.) It requires .Net V2, which most up to date PCs would have had a few years ago. As well as flashing though it can work in a test mode where you are given options to choose from. Lots of flexibility - check it out to see what I mean.

Input is via files which you have to create, though I do currently include the first 22 lessons of the 301 BCLU book(s), which I study from. The format is tab separated with Character, Pinyin, Meaning (i.e. english).

Sorry I'm a bit too lazy to write a thorough ReadMe at the moment, but most of it is pretty intuitive I think. Do look into the Repeat/Remove options which work well together and allow you to flash until a word is 'learnt'.

This is the first time I've allowed anyone else to use this so feedback appreciated, though don't expect suggestions to be incorporated too soon (see 'lazy' above).

Do feel free to ask functional questions here.

(BTW, any well connected IT workers in Beijing/China out there?)

HànzìFlasher.rar

[roddy]

Is there anything here that Anki, ZDT, etc, doesn't do?

[HarryCallahan]

I'm sure it's different, exactly how so I don't know, I haven't used them. Perhaps they don't have an option mode... look forward to comparisons being made. Regardless I like to create things myself when I can, then I can do it exactly how I like it.

[yersi]

Your program is okay, I like that it's flexible and gives you a lot of options for cycling.

But sorry, I don't see why anyone would use this when Anki has spaced repetition which is superior for long-term memorization, customizability way beyond what your program can do, automatic reading generation and tons of other useful features. Oh, and I sent its creator an email about a proposed feature about a month ago and instead of telling me he was too "lazy" to do it he coded that sucker in within a month and it's going into the new release.

If your hope is landing a job through those "well-connected IT workers" I think you need to review your attitude a little bit.

[HarryCallahan]

Yersi yersi yersi.... here's my suggestion to you, DON'T USE IT! Can you manage that without getting your knickers in a knot? I'm not trying to replace anything, it's not meant to be the world's new premier flash application, it's a little thing I wrote in my own time and if someone wants to use it they're free to. This seems like a relevant place to post it. Sorry as a single person sharing something I have done for free my dedication to requests, if any, will be limited. And that is not my formal request for job offers, it's a little hint whilst I'm here. Sh*t man, talk about attitude...

Edited January 15, 2009 at 06:38 AM by HarryCallahan

[HarryCallahan]

I've just installed Anki for the first time. Obviously a lot of work has gone into it, it's well presented and has lots of options and ancillary features (graphs, server synch, plugins...). I will say though, that's not always a good thing when you have a simple requirement i.e. flash text cards at me, it can scare people away actually if they posess low computer literacy and/or don't have the time to learn something complex.

And regarding features, does Anki support a testing or option mode? (pick the correct answer from options). From my brief perusal it doesn't seem to - that's quite a significant difference if it's true. Though it can be debated how beneficial such a thing is for memory retention, I have found it useful as it forces you to conciously think to pick the correct one. And with the learning enabled it will flash you until you have achieved the specified success (learnt) condition.

(81 mg vs 350K, as long as we're counting)

[Prodigal Son]

you started coding this before even trying Anki or ZDT?? whoops!

[HarryCallahan]

Sure did! Problemo? I use it for each lesson I do, it works great.

Did you read my post above? Can you tell me if either of those programs allow me to choose from options in test style?

[renzhe]

If you're having success using this tool, that's great. There's nothing wrong in putting together a tool to do the job if you enjoy doing this. I often code quick things to help me with my learning.

It's just that there are many free tools out there that are mature and excellent at flashcard learning, that most people looking for such a tool have already found one. SRS, for example, is a must for learning large quantities of information, and several programs out there have very advanced SRS algorithms.

[bredmond812陈秉劲]

I think this program is excellent. I tried Anki for a second, but i downloaded that, ZDT and just went throught them quickly. The thing i like about your program is that it is simple, and that i can upload lists i already have in .xls format by first pasting them on notepad and saving the format in unicode. But what i think would be really excellent is to have this on my nokia cellphone. Do you think this could be recoded for Nokia? also, i cant make the screen big and sometimes the definitions will extend off the screen if i have option for hanzi on 9, and the vocabulary is phrases like 除了。。。以外. Is there some way to fix that with teh existing version?

brandon.

[HarryCallahan]

I did email you Brandon, but will repeat here for the benefit of all.

Hi Brandon, and thanks for your positive feedback.

I'm sorry but this will never work on a Nokia or a Palm, the reason is

that it is built on the Microsoft Windows platform and those devices

utilise different operating systems. A handheld Windows device would

be more possible but still a lot of work to do to cater for the

different screen dimensions.

There are alternatives described on the site which are said to work on

handheld devices, I really haven't done any investigation into those

myself so am not in a position to advise you about them.

As you can see it works on Windows, feel free to discuss anything

further regarding that implementation.

-----

And regarding your dimension problem, can you tell me which resolution you are running at? I've tested at 1024x768 and found that it was OK, the whole flash screen fitted (which is the same size regardless of the option count). These days you should be using at least that resolution, anything smaller is ancient ;-) Though if it's something else I may be able to attend to it.

[bredmond812陈秉劲]

ok, so i checked my screen dimensions, they are 1280x800. it is in a windowed mode. it doesnt full screen.

also, if i were to have a windows mobile, could the program be easily adapted? you said yes but there would be some challenges regarding catering to different screen dimensions. But what if just one was selected and that was it? like if i should happen to buy a particular model, as i plan to already, namely teh dopod D600 with the following specs:

2.8” 240×320像素 65536色 半透半反式 TFT LCD. which says 2.8 screen 240x320pixel 65536color (half transparent half somethingrather) TFT LCD.

http://www.dopod.com/pc/product/d600_1.php

it uses windows mobile

thanks

Brandon

[bredmond812陈秉劲]

or if you have the source code, maybe i know somebody who knows somebody who has a cousin who can code. is that possible?

brandon

[HarryCallahan]

I think I know what you mean Brandon, the flash screen is not maximising to the screen size, this is default and fixed behaviour. I designed it to be big enough to fit up to 4 character strings when you choose 9 options. You have to have limits, can't cater for any amount of screen content. If the full flash screen is fitting in your resolution then I'm satisifed with that.

It's quite rare (I think) for Chinese words to exceed 4 characters. But also we have to ask are we learning Chinese characters or Chinese words? There is a difference of course and usually, I think, with flash card apps or actual cards (in your hand) you try and learn characters not words. If you know all the characters you can pronounce the word.

So consider 4 characters to be the word size limit, and with the ... and other superfluous stuff that might appear in the word just don't expect it to be catered for perfectly all the time. Re-iterating our primary goal is to learn characters.

(or choose 6 options! I don't usually use that but if you have to fit longer strings that should allow some more characters)

I'm sorry but your quoted screen resolution is tiny. A graphical program needs screen real estate, and the design for such a device is considerably different to a full screen desktop app. Such a program would always operate in full screen mode and be more of a step through variety rather than what you see in this. I won't be catering for sush a small resolution. And yes I have the source code (I wrote it) but that won't be made public. If you have friends you think can port the application then perhaps you can get them to start from scratch, they just have to flash the 3 fields on the screen at regular intervals.

[bredmond812陈秉劲]

ok, i get it.

so let me ask one more question. for the option mode, where do the other characters come from, like if i am studying 你们, it will also say things like 入门and 尔闹 or something that looks like the target word. can you reveal how you did that?

brandon

[HarryCallahan]

renzhe (sorry for late reply). I know what you're saying, I've looked into SRS and associated algorithms since writing this, they obviously take your learning to a more advanced level and cater for the needs of a longer term time frame. I've got it in mind to enhance the app if I can go about it without too much of a re-design, and without overly complicating the program. I think I may be able to get the program to work in an advanced SRS mode and and still leave the option to operate as it does now. This may be achieved by catering for an extra 'tracking file' in addition to the learning file. This will track your learning history and if provided will allow SRS style learning. Still a lot of thought to go into that though before I start changing anything.

[bredmond812陈秉劲]

i dont know what srs is. i just mean when it is on ooption mode, where do the other words in the other options come from?

brandon

[HarryCallahan]

Brandon, 3 sources for those.

1. Randomly genenerated. Actually not totally random. The characters are selected from a range of the ASCII table which the source (the correct one) character is centred within. This way we get random characters close to the source, this tests your brain better as you have to focus on the detail of the character. You've probably noticed this.

2. Random adjustments of the source. Swap characters around, change 1 or more characters with random (as above).

3. User supplied characters (or words). The learning list itself is a source of option characters, and also, the files you provide in the "+ More Words" list. This is specifically what this list is for, to provide additional option words.

Also on this subject, see the "Option Mode" box. This will set the source of option words (hanzi only).

- Random, all options are randomly generated.

- User, all options come from user supplied, unless we exhaust our supplied list(s).

- Mix, a bit of both. I think there's a 50 % probability an option will be 1 or each of the above.

I use and recommend Mix ;-)

(Also on the subject of the random option generation, I have in mind some enhancements to that. To do with the subject of nearness of option characters to the source - if you start with very different options, then at subsequent flashes use ones nearer to it, then the brain will have to hone in on the detail after first learning the basic form of the character. You need to know which characters are 'near' to the source though. At the moment just using the sequence of the ASCII table, which is grouped by radicals so its not so bad)

[JenniferW]

I've just downloaded HANZIFLASHER - but can't open it. What have I done wrong?

I've recently downloaded ZDT, ANKI and MNEMOSYNE, to try using the flashcard facilities, and am having problems with all of them - so would like to also try your program.

In ANKI and MNEMOSYNE I can't work out an east way to import my vocab lists which are in a spreadsheet format (Open Office). And I can't face making around 1,500 new cards from scratch when I have this cumulative list already. So, your program might solve that problem - if only I could run it.

I'm sure these are all excellent - but I'm at the stage of getting nowhere fast with all of them.

[imron]

In Open Office, save your spreadsheet file as a tab separated values (TSV) file. Then you should be able to import it directly into Anki.