WaKan Project Website

[z-one]

It's been some time since I've last posted on these forums but here I am again! And it's been some time since the last post in the Software tools forum too.

I wrote (a year ago?) that I'm working on my own language tool that would be used for kanji study. I've reached a level where a screenshot can't go wrong: http://z-one.extra.hu/untitled-1.png
The "only" problem is that the program is not good for kanji study yet... But let me explain. (Please read it. I'd like help and ideas, and brave souls who are ready for some testing to do.)

I first started out with many versions of kanji study programs. I had some idea how to make them into a useful tool, but for some reason they never worked out really well. I figured out that I need my study tool to be customizable in how it groups kanjis and words, and not something that is filled with prepared kanji order where you have to go by the list. So in this latest "version" (they were separate programs really) I made a word- and kanji dictionary first. After that I started working on a part where you can group kanjis, and add example words for them. That part is already finished, but before I could continue on the actual "study" part, I wanted to make the already existing dictionary more useful. I used it already for some time, but it was bothersome (and Wakan "was" way more useful).

So here is what I've done so far and what I want to make first before I can consider anything else:
- kanji and word dictionary. The kanji dictionary search has all those searching options that the KANJIDIC offers (what Wakan has too)
- the word dictionary can recognize inflections and verb conjugations (just like Wakan).
- it can search for the start and end of the Japanese words.
- you can paste kanji directly into the dictionary input box, or input kanji from the kanji dictionary. It can't use the Japanese IME, but I want to include my own version, as it cannot be that hard after the dictionary is ready.
- the English dictionary only looks from the start of words.
- when the input word is conjugated, the dictionary lists what kind of inflections altered the word. (as you can see in the screenshot)
- you can select, copy etc. the kanji and kana from the listed words in the dictionary, just like in Wakan.
- what I think the most useful (and the only innovation compared to Wakan yet...) is that the dictionary can sit in the system tray (the icons next the clock) and can be "popped up" in the screen corner with a key combination (I set it to ctrl+alt+j but it's customizable) without hiding other programs much, and disappears with the ESC key.

What will be finished but not done yet (hopefully until the week ends):
- vocabulary listings, just like in Wakan, but unlike it, I'd like to make some different ways how the program tests our knowledge. I don't think a self-prepared word list help much when all that the program does is ask them. Many other kanji and word study programs do this... I want to make something that prevents the user from adding too much words to the learning lists untill he knows the already present words enough. The number of "Too much" will depend on the testing method.
- I'd like to kill most of the bugs (some fools always hope). The program is stable, and I use it for months now without problems, but I added some major things lately to the inflection detection.

Later I'll try to include regular expression search to the dictionary. I've read about it in the feature request forums and I found the idea extremely useful. It'll only work when there is a kanji in the search string though, because that's the only way I can make it work fast. I want to add kanji study part too (the original purpose of the program) with the same philosophy as I have written about word study. But this'll only happen when I start studying kanji seriously and find out what the best ways are. I know my explanation is not too detailed about the testing. I want to make it so that the program will show instructions during study, so it won't only be the final phase of testing. I'm not a language teacher and I don't want this to sound like the program will know highly efficient and worldwide famous techniques, because it won't. I just want it help a bit during the study part too. If nothing more, then give inspiration and tell the user that he needs more practice.

I may have left out things but let's leave it at that for now. I just want to state at the end, that I've never intended to clone Wakan, but it has just so many searching functionalities that are simply perfect. So why should I change those? I don't want to replace Wakan with this program (I couldn't), I just need some functionalities not present in Wakan AND many functionalities that are already present. I figured that because Filip is busy I had to make something, not just sit in the forums and complain, nor tell others what to do. I will never make a Japanese word processor and my program needs the asian fonts installed too (not the IME though). It won't have the example files (at least not in the near future), won't be able to print kanji cards and won't be able to do so many things that Wakan can.

ps. Sorry for my Hungrish (Hungarian English) and that I wrote a long story here.

[tony]

z-one,

I'm sorry I didn't respond earlier-- somehow I missed the new posting.

I would be happy to sign on as a tester, and to provide detailed suggestions on additional or modified functionality. I'm also willing to collaborate on writing code if you are interested in that.

Have you ever tried KanjiLab? ( http://www.epochrypha.com/japanese/ ) It is the one which I have found the most useful among the programs I've tried, although it lacks some of the features you have outlined above. If you haven't tried it, it might give you some good ideas. It has a Leitner-style mechanism for remembering information from the user's history of correct and incorrect answers, and using this to decide when to test the user again on a given kanji. After tinkering with user-controlled parameters, it can be gotten to behave reasonably well. (The documentation of the Leitner algorithm is complete, if not especially friendly.) What I like best is that it asks for active input from the user-- typing in readings-- rather than passive mechanisms like multiple choice selection. The drill where one looks at a kanji in the context of a word and provides the reading that it has in that word is also a good idea, although not implemented as well as it could have been, I think.

Anyway, please contact me either by PM or by e-mail.

By the way, I would be quite happy if my fluency in any language other than English was anywhere close to yours in English. There are only one or two usages in your writing that suggest that it is not a first language for you, and on the whole, your writing in English is considerably more clear than that of many native speakers, including many of my former college students.

[z-one]

Hi! First of all I hope it is not a problem that I post about this on the Wakan forums. If it were then I apologize.

My program called Zkanji is ready for heavy testing! (This sounds nice, but I've only reached a state where it can be used relatively safely.) The address is http://zkanji.extra.hu.

As I've explained above, Zkanji is kanji/Japanese-English dictionary with the ability to group words and kanji, and to create interactive tests to improve your kanji and word knowledge. While this sounds nice in theory, ZKanji is still far from reaching it's goal. It can only group kanji but does not test your kanji knowledge. Word tests are working.

If you are interested in a new application, please check out Zkanji at http://zkanji.extra.hu! I need testers and anyone who has ideas to make this program better. You can read about the program in greater detail there, check out the screenshots and download Zkanji from the site.

z-one

[tony]

z-one,

The "Software tools" forum is intended for discussing programs other than WaKan, so your announcement is entirely appropriate here. I hope that other WaKan users try out your program and have good suggestions to make.

A note to anyone who has had trouble using the Screen popup tool in WaKan: z-one's zkanji program has a very convenient "popup dictionary." When z-kanji is minimized, it becomes an icon in the system tray. At any time, you can ask z-kanji to look up a Japanese or English word in the clipboard, and display it in this popup window. This can be invoked either by a user-defined key-accelerator combination (such as Ctrl-J or Ctrl-E) or by right-clicking on the icon in the system tray and selecting a menu item.

This comes close to replacing the function of WaKan's Screen popup tool, except that you must first select the word and copy it to the clipboard, instead of just hovering over the beginning of the word with your mouse pointer.

--Tony

[shinyclef]

It looks like really good work, but you know... such good ideas for programs, everyone's got their own little idea going, it's a shame that people can't work on the same things to make 1 fantastic program instead of 2 good ones.

It seems you've borrowed many of wakan's features and style anyway, so why not email filip and see what you can do about working on wakan to add the new sorting functions and such?

Filip is clearly too busy to work on Wakan these days, but what are the plans for wakan from here?

Oh, and, I just downloaded ZKanji, copied the files to a folder, ran the .exe and it said it couldn't load the dictionary and wouldn't run.
I'm using vista. Good luck with your program.

[z-one]

I agree that it'd be better to work on one program to make it better but our ideas and aims can be different and not everyone is willing to share. It's a shame, but the human race is like that. Sorry for the "deep" philosophy

Have you extracted the zip file with all it's folders? If you forget this, the program won't run. You can still create a folder named "data" and copy "zdict.zkj" there.

[z-one]

I have released a new version of zkanji. The previous one had some really annoying bugs (is there any program without them?). It's still completely free and will stay that way.
Please visit http://zkanji.extra.hu and try it. I need testers.
Thank you!

[Drex]

About Wakan's screen popup tool. I like that one because it's the only such utility I know. My major problem in working with japanese software is that I can not just copy and then translate its controls' text (menu items and other controls which are not selectable). Without screen popup-tool it takes much time to search for those kanji manually. For z-kanji that'd be very very usefull feature to give translation of a text pointed anywhere on the screen.
Anyway I'm joining current version's tests.

[z-one]

Thank you for testing zkanji!

A screen popup tool would be nice but I just don't know how to make one. Maybe it is not even possible on those machines that crash when wakan's popup tool is started.

I've created zkanji for words and kanji study and there are still many features missing that I'd like to add, so please don't look at it as a finished program. I'm especially looking for ways to make learning kanji easier. If you have ideas for new features that can help don't hesitate to tell.

[Drex]

Of course I'm not looking at it as at the finished product, that's why I make my suggestions. Well, some first testing notes.
1. SKIP code analysis (or how it works there) may be wrong for some characters. While trying SKIP-code filter I've figured out that in mode "top1-bottom2" it confuses numbers of strokes for 空 (sora) character. In order to find it one should type 3 for the top element (#1) and 5 for the bottom element (#2), but it's the top element 穴 which contains 5 strokes and the bottom one 工 consists of 3 strokes if I'm not mistaken. For some other checked characters it worked just as it was expected.

Little suggestions:
2. It's a bit uncomfortable for me to clear manually Meaning, Strokes and Reading fields in order to turn those filters off. And Reset button discards the entire filters' settings including radicals list. I guess additional checkboxes would be useful.
3. When I push window header's buttons it affects the whole program. Is there a way to hide desired panels, for example when I wish to leave just Kanji List window?

[tony]

[z-one]

[tony]

My mistake. It is not messages he's looking at, it's the instruction stack.

[z-one]

[Drex]

Hello again
It's definetely better with those checkboxes and I like the way it auto-checks when you type something into field but it has no effect whether you check or uncheck them after that It works with field content anyway.
Next I've eventually stuck with such a bug: In dictionary panel when you switch to Japanese-English mode and then try to open search combobox application crushes, I mean it just exits, no error is reporting.

Continue testing.........xx%