Chinese Supermemo Databases

[Konglong]

Have any of you created Supermemo databases for your Chinese study? Are they available for download? Are there any tips you could provide in creating my own?

K

[beirne]

I have been using Supermemo for about 5 years and have lots of Chinese databases. I create them with a spreadsheet and convert them to Supermemo pdbs for download. I categorize my entries by either the chapter of the book that they came from or the topic if I just added a group of words with the same theme. Once I have download the new file and learn it I rename the file to match an existing one, such as "Chinese". The file new file will be merged into the existing one.

The Supermemo conversion file seems to take Chinese characters without any problems, so you should be able to use the IME to enter the characters. After setting up the files in one direction, such as English to Chinese, you will want to copy the list and switch Chinese and English so you have entries going both ways. You also may want three ways, so you are quizzed by English, Pinyin, and the characters.

The only problem is that once they get to the Palm Supermemo tries to resize them according to its built-in font handling and the characters get a bit garbled. If they are unrecognizable I need to view the original card in edit mode, covering up the pinyin and English.

[Konglong]

I would be curious to see how theese look on the PocketPC version of Supermemo. Thanks for your advice. Time to test this out.

K

[techie]

Which version of Supermemo do you all recommend for the Chinese input?

I have heard that the new version 2004 has built into it a better Unicode code for the Chinese language than previous versions.

Can anybody comment on this?

Thanks.

[unstrungpuppet]

From Supermemo's FAQ:

* Foreign characters are illegible on hi-res devices?

This is a result of incomplete font installation. You need to install both hi-res (320x320) and low-res (160x160) fonts.

If you use SuperMemo to learn a language with non-English characters (e.g. Japanese, Chinese, Korean) then you need some 3rd party font tool to be able to display these characters. Often there is an option to install hi-res fonts, low-res fonts or both. As SuperMemo uses hi-res fonts in all screens except the Card View and low-res fonts in the Card View, you need to install both low-res and hi-res fonts, otherwise the Card View will be left with no font to use and will try to use scaled-down hi-res font which will often look illegible.

[in_lab]

After I read that FAQ I wrote them an email. I tried to say it nicely, but the summary is: Don't try to tell me it's my fault because I don't know how to install fonts, it's simply because you can't display some characters clearly in low-res.

[unstrungpuppet]

I'm at my wit's end. I am working hard to learn Chinese, and it would seem that technology should be a Good Thing in my quest, but it has been little more than a nightmare for me.

1. I bought a Pocket PC (with an English OS, as that is my native language)

2. I bought Declan's Pocket PC software. It refuses to acknowledge the registration code that Declan provided, and Declan has not responded to my queries in over two months. I have given up on Declan.

3. I bought Supermemo 2004 for Pocket PC. Unfortunately, I cannot get it to display Chinese characters. I have both MingLiu and Song fonts installed on my Pocket PC (an HP 4700), but this does not appear to be enough to get the job done.

I feel like an idiot, because I have spent two months trying to get ANY Chinese-learning software to work on my Pocket PC and have completely failed. This surprises me since I have built my last three computers - I'm not a tech moron. But I have little knowledge of Chinese-language work and it is killing me that I spend more time farting around trying to get software to work than I do learning Chinese. Instead of helping me to learn Chinese, technology is holding me up, and I've hit the wall.

I would be grateful for any sincere advice on how to get any of this stuff working on my Pocket PC.

Thanks,

Michael

[Konglong]

Are you using a native English PPC? Or is it Chinese? If English, have you istalled any Chinese support? (Monster, ROSChinese).

Mdict is a free PPC dictionary available here. Recently upgraded and now supports Cleartype. I make my own dictionaries and love how it works. Give it a try. Screenshots available on the site.

Kong

[roseha]

Hi I just purchased supermemo and installed cjkos onto my Palm Tungsten E and I have a database that a friend sent me. I've been reading a lot about the font problem and now i understand! Well no i don't really understand because I'm trying to overcome this hurdle myself. Can someone point me in the right direction on where to read the documentation on how to fix this "font" issue.

Rose

[in_lab]

http://www.mapletop.com/supermemo/faq.html#Illegible

Summary:

If characters look bad: that's because only low-resolution fonts are supported in card mode.

If characters look really bad: maybe you haven't installed low-resolution fonts on your system.

[beirne]

If characters look really bad: maybe you haven't installed low-resolution fonts on your system.

That makes all the difference in the world. Thanks!

[roseha]

I just installed all the 16x16 font from CJKOS to fix the problem with seeing characters in Card View. No luck

[beirne]

Install the 12x12 fonts. The 16x16 fonts are for hi-res devices with 320x320 screens. What Supermemo needs are fonts for low-res 160x160 screens, and the 12x12 fonts are the higher definition ones for those.

[roddy]

Assuming that Supermemo databases can be exported in a standard format, could someone post an example of a (short) one. I'd like to get the HSK vocab database outputing in formats that can easily be imported into programs like Supermemo and Plecodict.

Roddy

[beirne]

Assuming that Supermemo databases can be exported in a standard format, could someone post an example of a (short) one. I'd like to get the HSK vocab database outputing in formats that can easily be imported into programs like Supermemo and Plecodict.

The Supermemo files on the Palm are in a proprietary format and can't be exported. There is a converter program for the PC, though, that will convert a text file to a Palm file. I have attached a text file, containing the vocabulary that was new for me in chapter 49 of the PCR. Each line is a record, tab separated. The first six fields are fields that can appear on the tests and drills. Normallly the first is the question and the rest are for answers but that can be configured on the Palm. The seventh field must be filled in with a short category name. Documentation is available at http://www.mapletop.com/supermemo/manual/m_import.htm#Import

While looking for documentation on the converter just now I discovered that there is a third-party free program that converts Palm Supermemo databases to CSV and other formats. I'll have to try it. I have lots of entries in my Palm and people sometimes ask for them in a different format.

[roseha]

I've installed cjkos and made sure i have the 16x16 and 24x24 fonts. I haven't figured out how to display the characters in supermemo itself. My database looks fine on the pc but after exporting it to sm on the palm .. it looks like complete garbage. Also no matter how many rows in my tab delimited file that i create, after using the smconv.exe to convert to .prc it only recognizes that i had one entry to the db when in fact i had more.

supermemo hates me!

Rose

[beirne]

I've installed cjkos and made sure i have the 16x16 and 24x24 fonts. I haven't figured out how to display the characters in supermemo itself. My database looks fine on the pc but after exporting it to sm on the palm .. it looks like complete garbage. Also no matter how many rows in my tab delimited file that i create, after using the smconv.exe to convert to .prc it only recognizes that i had one entry to the db when in fact i had more.

Once again, install the 12x12 font. SM displays the cards based on a 160x160 screen.

When you run SMCONV.EXE, how many rows did it say it processed? Did it display any error messages?

[roseha]

thanks for your help, this is what I have so far.

CJK Version 4.621

Font 12x12,16x16,24x24 fonts for GB and BIG5 are installed on a palm E,

I create the file with notepad (windows) and save it as UTF-8 encoded.

SMCONV.EXE reports the proper number of rows and reports no errors.

this is the contents of that file.

我 wo

你 ni

他 ta

一 yi

二　 er

三 san

四 ci

五 wo

六 liu

七 qi

八 ba

九 jiu

十 shi

when I sync I get seemly random partial chinese characters (in the main screen) and the same wrong characters are being displayed in the flash card.

the pingying english answer columns do display properly.

I've tried all the different display fonts settings (gb, gbk, big5) and the results are the same.

one further note, I did originally type the above using windows IME and was using excel and saving as txt file and saved it from unicode to UTF-8

any ideas?

followup:

I looked at another posters file that does work! the problem now is that in notepad it looks like this.

ÈÕ¼Ç ri4ji4 diary

what is the encoding scheme used for the first column and what software do I need to have it render properly!? I feel I"m getting closer!

Rose

[beirne]

I create the file with notepad (windows) and save it as UTF-8 encoded.

Ah, now it is all clear. You need to save the file as GB18030 for simplified characters, which Notepad doesn't appear to do. I don't have Excel handy but I'm guessing you can write them this way. If you want traditional characters you will need to pick some sort of Big5 but I've never done it.

[Ole]

Ah, now it is all clear. You need to save the file as GB18030 for simplified characters, which Notepad doesn't appear to do.

You could download the Wenlin-Demo to do it. http://www.wenlin.com/demo.htm

Ole