Poll

What feature would you like to see in the next version of Stackz?

Test tool requiring to type the answers
Improved file content management
Remove well-known entries from the revision process
Audio playback of native speaker
Audio playback, and recording/playback own voice

Author Topic: New features  (Read 25486 times)

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Chris

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New features
« on: February 08, 2006, 03:09:22 PM »
Tell us what feature you would like to see in future versions!
Note: you must login to vote and view the poll results.

Replies to this thread are welcome, I will split them into individual threads if applicable.
« Last Edit: March 08, 2007, 12:14:15 AM by Chris »

TylerK

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Re: New features
« Reply #1 on: June 12, 2007, 11:19:38 AM »
I was somewhat surprised to find "Test tool requiring typed answers" as one of the requested features. I am trying the Stackz! for the first time with the new beta, and my purchase would be guaranteed if this feature were available. It seems to me the "Test" function included in the software would more aptly be titled "Review", as there is no testing going on during the test procedure. I think a test procedure would not be very difficult to implement, and it could even help the program keep track of words the user is struggling with.
« Last Edit: June 12, 2007, 11:31:40 AM by TylerK »

Chris

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Re: New features
« Reply #2 on: June 12, 2007, 11:29:08 AM »
With Japanese text, "type" is done with the IME, so it's rather "selecting from a list" than really typing the answer. We encourage the students to write the answer using pen and paper and to compare the result manually. Stackz can be conveniently operated with the left hand, using the arrow keys, for that purpose.

The answer input of Japanese text makes more sense with tablet PCs, but the dialog must be designed for that.


Watus

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Re: New features
« Reply #3 on: June 28, 2007, 11:16:23 AM »
I think that audio playbacks are a must for the program, and they would improve it greatly! Some months ago I had passed the basic HSK (Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi, Chinese proefficiency test), and though I remembered quite well all the basic characters, when the oral comprehension part came, I was unable to understand 90% of the words!! Oral comprehension cannot be practized only through reading of characters and his transcription, and oral test is one of the few things I miss in stackz!

The option to playback the own voice is a very nice feature that can be found in other flashcards programs, and essential for the student not depending on realeaser's updates of sound files. What could be done if one wants to be able to understant inmediately a pronounced complex sentence? Without this option, the student could only hope that the releaser launches a sound file with the sentence (so unlikely to happen), or wait the implementation of one of these read-to-speech add-ons so slow and artificial.

But the oter features listed are also very interesting! The improved management would be very nice if for example a "Find and replace" option or a corrector (this would be more difficult to implement) were implemented.

The test tool requiring to type the answers is somewhat implemented in the pocket-pc version (I've tried only the 2007 beta) with it's handwriting option and I found it awesome!

I'm very happy to see that the staff is aiming to improve the software in these areas, stackz! is actually one of the top flashcards programs (the top, for me, import wizard is totally KICKASS), and these features would definitely make the difference!!


« Last Edit: June 28, 2007, 11:36:54 AM by Watus »

arashi

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Re: New features
« Reply #4 on: July 02, 2007, 11:23:20 PM »

Have you ever thought about creating a psp stackz? maybe is not powerful enough to support big files... not sure about that...

Chris

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Re: New features
« Reply #5 on: July 03, 2007, 06:08:28 AM »
PSP is not an open system, I don't know how to write software for it (without using a homebrew eLoader, that is...)

gigapops

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Re: New features
« Reply #6 on: July 03, 2007, 02:52:54 PM »
gigapops's wish list for "new improved stackz":
1. Integrated audio file option as found in "b4uki" (before you know it), not the linked kind as in "V-train".
2. Slide show option as in "V-Train", with timer control.
3. In the edit dialog I'd like to have a select "all" button to aid in copying/moving contents.

comment:

At present "Stackz" is great. You can you make it "insanely great"?

 

brett.gildersleeve

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Re: New features
« Reply #7 on: July 12, 2007, 05:05:19 PM »
I already posted this before, but it was in "bug reports" and may have been overlooked as a feature request.

I'd like the dictionary search to be slightly more flexible.  Right now it's great, but sometimes you can't find what you're looking for, especially when searching for multiple word entries in English.
(PS, I did rebuild my index as suggested, and that fixed some problems, but these problems persist...)

Example:

Say I want to look up "same day"
The target word is 同日 [どうじつ] the same day

However, when I type in the search box "same day," there are no words found.

I have to type in exactly "the same day."  Then I get two search results:
同日 [どうじつ] the same day
ダブる [ダブる] to coincide (fall on the same day); to have two of something; to repeat a school year after failing

Note that in neither of these cases is this entry found:
その日 [そのひ] that day; the very same day

In order to find that, I have to type in exactly "the very same day."

It seems to me that when I type in "same day" I should get all three results:
同日 [どうじつ] the same day
ダブる [ダブる] to coincide (fall on the same day); to have two of something; to repeat a school year after failing
その日 [そのひ] that day; the very same day

I'm sure there's plenty of other definitions containing the words "same day" that I'm missing out on because I didn't type in the definition exactly as it's listed.

In the same vein, I should be able to type in "day same" and get the same results.  In other words, each word in the search box should be treated individually, and the dictionary should search for entries containing all of the individual words.

In this way it will function like a search engine on the internet.

I hope this suggestion is easy to implement.  I use Stackz as my primary dictionary for my Japanese studies!!!   ;D

cross69

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Re: New features
« Reply #8 on: September 20, 2007, 07:17:29 PM »

Sorry, i can't open a new topic as i have problems with this homepage... i cant open new topic ... last time i did something wrong... it says:
Sorry, the copyright must be in the template.
"Please notify this forum's administrator that this site is missing the copyright message for SMF so they can rectify the situation. Display of copyright is a legal requirement. For more information on this please visit the Simple Machines website."

Well. anyway, my request maybe is difficult or impossible to make... well, i?ll explain...

when you are search a kanji in the edit option, it moves between all the entries that contains that kanji, it doesn't matter the order.

Could it be possible to directly find and arrange them? so if you have 20 entries with that kanji in first or second position in a list of 1000 words, could it be possible an option that search and put those 20 entries in the beginning of the list so you can review, cut or whatever you want to do quickly?

Thanks

cross69

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Re: New features
« Reply #9 on: September 25, 2007, 07:44:23 PM »

I can't open a new topic yet, so i will continue writing my requests here...

I have a problem with search option in edit mode, it's about the language attribute.I am using japanese and english, so when i create a new entry, i choose japanese language to look if the word i'm looking is into the list, if it isn't i add the entry and write the translation in spanish, then if i want to look for another word the language in the search box has changed into spanish, so i have to change it again to write in kanji...

Could it be possible to add an option to choose the language to be used in the search box too? so it remains always fixed? i mean in file options.

Also i would like to be able to change the colour of the selection line when searching, i find that navy blue really dark and i have to click in order to read the content of the line(it turns grey).

Thanks

kanemiya

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Re: New features
« Reply #10 on: February 15, 2008, 06:25:45 AM »
I want to use a graphics pad and pen stylus to write the Characters. 

davecazz

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Re: New features
« Reply #11 on: February 17, 2008, 02:25:56 AM »
I can't think of any new features but definately some shortcuts would be nice.  usually, when I go through a new word list. I go through each lesson and create a parallel lesseon that contains the kanji in it. at the end of the entire word list, I will then do the same for all the word lists combined so I can get a single stack with all the kanji characters that I've learnt.

The way it is now, I have to open the edit list, select all the words, add to text pad, get kanji info, close the other dialogs, then add all the characters to the selected stack. It would be great if this was a single button to get kanji info on all the selected stacks without having to go through edit and text pad.

also, there is a bug that happens if I try and copy more than 100 kanji from the kanji info dialog to the selected stack. this makes it pretty tedious to copy smaller batches of characters at a time.


I do have some improvements for pocket stackz though.

configurable test buttons. the up down right and left buttons are a great idea but some phones have really lame control stick (like mine). I cannot for the life of me, hit right and except it to promote the card to the next stack. it would be awesome to configure buttons so you could assign the shoulder buttons to pass or fail and assign the control stick (any direction) to uncovering the next hint.

a real exit button - for some reason my phone (most likely some others) has problems with the font if I leave it open for a period of time. The fonts come out as empty boxes and the only way to fix it is to soft reset the phone. the only way I can fix this is to go to system, memory, and close the app manually which is a pain. A real exit button on the left shoulder menu would be awesome.

random cards in test mode. sometimes I like the fact that the hardest words come first, but most of the time I want to increase the challenge and test in a random way so hard and easy words are mixed together.


Things that aren't interesting to me

audio - this seems like it would slow down the learning of a big stack of words. if I am really stumped on the pronounciation I can google the word and get it. Also, it would seem almost impossible to verify the accuracy and quality of audio files for all the words in the available word lists.

test tool requiring types answers - this would slow down learning as well. If you do add this, please make it optional for test mode. Using the honor system is perfect.





Teskal

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Re: New features
« Reply #12 on: March 20, 2008, 07:02:18 AM »
I have difficulties to decide, because I don't understand what you want with some options:

- Improved file content management
- Remove well-known entries from the revision process
- Audio playback of native speaker

Last Option is clear what it means (I think), but I don't know how you will integrate this, because every stackz-list is normally a selfcreated list. How should it be possible to get a native speaker for my selfcreated vocabulary-list?

Chris

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Re: New features
« Reply #13 on: March 20, 2008, 08:58:17 AM »
If you don't understand the suggestions, then you probably don't need them... :)
Feel free to add your suggestions in this thread.

The poll is a bit outdated, some issues have been improved in the meantime:
- file content management has been improved for version 7 (was kind of restricted before)
- revision process limitation has been improved for version 7 with the "inclusion sliders" on the color bar
- nobody said that native speakers would read your self-created lists... we have many lists in the archive that could be extended with a voice feature.



Teskal

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Re: New features
« Reply #14 on: March 20, 2008, 12:29:40 PM »
the Sliders are really good, without it I would not use the SW anymore, because the colors alone are not very helpful. So I can choose I want to learn only Black entries, and not near black or other colors. I hope they will be available for the pocket stackz, too.  ;D