Damien has said that he plans to release Anki 2.0 as Beta (Noted by resolve) at the beginning of half of March. So now would probably be a good time for people to grab the Alpha and test it out and see what they think. I say this because the entire interface for Anki has changed.
Note that the Alpha is not actually meant to study with just yet since its still undergoing changes and isn't quite ready for launch. There are still some kinks and features that need to be added in.
Download (Most recent of this post is Alpha6):
http://ankisrs.net/download/mirror/alpha/
Manual:
http://ankisrs.net/docs/dev/changes.html
---
My own thoughts.
Interface: Being someone that has gotten very use to Anki 1.x's interface and just the general style of windows layouts; Anki 2.0 is frustrating. There is no "Open deck.." any more really. You simply create a deck, download, or drop a deck in your deck folder and hit refresh and it pops up in the deck browser. Its pretty clear that Anki has been redesigned with touch screens in mind now. More accessible/simpler buttons and most of the operation has been moved to the main screen. You no longer work and modify your deck through hitting toolbar buttons or going through the menus. That aside, with a little bit of time it won't be too hard to get use to the layout, but it is annoying at first.
Terminology: Facts are now known as "Notes." This change is stupid I think since I always thought calling the primary thing facts and you create cards based on the "facts." But creating "notes" and making cards based on the notes, is just weird.
Models are now "Note Types."
Reviewing Options: Holy ***** options batman. I think a lot of people have longed for a more accessible way to modify the way their decks operate and now you can. Previously many of the options were locked away in the Advanced tab for your deck and was a bit intimidating to modify if you didn't really know what you were doing. Damien has gone and eliminated the Adv. tab and made efforts to present the options in a more digestible manner. You'll need to check out the manual to figure most stuff out.
I want to draw your attention to something new you can now tweak to affect the algorithm that we never could before. Forgetting index
In Anki 1.x the forgetting index was set in the background by the scheduler at 10%. This meant that out of all your mature cards, cards with intervals greater than 28 days, you were expected to forget about 10% of those cards (ie: 90% correct rate on mature cards). This 10% is known as the desired forgetting index. You can now change this to be whatever you want but Damien highly encourages you keep it at 10% since its a pretty solid number balancing learning and retention. There is however a new number you can also tweak: assumed forgetting index. Basically, if you are studying material that is quite difficult and you find that really you are forgetting 15% of the mature cards, then you can come in here and input 15% and it'll jigger the scheduler and try and pull your forgetting back toward 10%. Damien says this isn't automatic because it actually is pretty expensive to calculate so you need to modify it manually.
Studying: Failed and new cards are now put in a mode known as "Learning" where they have 3 buttons instead of 4; Again, Good, Easy. Cards in Learning now also have to go through "Steps." By default there are 2 steps where a card is spaced 1 minute after being answered followed by 10 minutes. You can add more steps in the Study Options sections (Its the text box that has "1 10" => 1 minute followed by 10 minute. 1 5 8 10 would 1min 5min 8min 10min; and so on). My biggest complaint about learning mode is it disrupts study flow. Regular review cards are given 4 buttons. So if for example during studying it switches back to "learning" you'll suddenly find you can't answer using "4." This is a small thing and I'm sure a plugin can be written to lump 4 with 3 in learning mode; nonetheless, annoying if you are trying to get through 400 cards in an hour.
Styling: Damien has really made styling the cards way more accesible. You now have direct access to the CSS sheet, which I don't believe you did in Anki 1.x (easily). Because of the minimalist interface design of 2.0, its shifted my card display up when maximized on my screen instead of being centered. I think with tweaking the style I can get it where I want.
AnkiWeb + Sharing: Damien has moved the Sharing download interface out of the program and appears to be moving it onto the website. He has mentioned he is still working on the interface for the web so its hard to say how it will work. All I know is you can no longer download shared decks or plugins from within Anki--at least at the moment.
Statistics: There is a new graph/stats window. The stats are more informative I feel and presented better but I have only one real complaint. You are stuck with 1 month, 1 year, or Deck life as graph display intervals. You can now export/save an image of the graphs though which is great. The most interesting graph IMO that we currently don't have in Anki 1.x is the "% correct based on time of the day" checking my Core6k deck out, apparently 8am-ish is my best time to review and it goes down hill during the day before picking back up a little bit in the evening.
Misc: The last thing that I have noted is that plugin writers will need to go back and update their plugins to support the new Anki. The "Japanese Support" plugin for instance doesn't work. It could be that they need to placed in the profile folder (a new feature) to work, but I don't see much mention on the manual if that is the case.
Decks: Forgot an important point. There is a new deck format layout. This means that all your decks will need to be migrated to the Anki 2.0 format. The new decks will be moved into the user profile folder and....actually it appears they are all placed into a giant SQLlite database now. (Anki 1.x decks are their own sqlite dbs). The old decks remain where they were, so if you want to rollback to Anki 1.x you can.
So, your own thoughts and reactions?
Note that the Alpha is not actually meant to study with just yet since its still undergoing changes and isn't quite ready for launch. There are still some kinks and features that need to be added in.
Download (Most recent of this post is Alpha6):
http://ankisrs.net/download/mirror/alpha/
Manual:
http://ankisrs.net/docs/dev/changes.html
---
My own thoughts.
Interface: Being someone that has gotten very use to Anki 1.x's interface and just the general style of windows layouts; Anki 2.0 is frustrating. There is no "Open deck.." any more really. You simply create a deck, download, or drop a deck in your deck folder and hit refresh and it pops up in the deck browser. Its pretty clear that Anki has been redesigned with touch screens in mind now. More accessible/simpler buttons and most of the operation has been moved to the main screen. You no longer work and modify your deck through hitting toolbar buttons or going through the menus. That aside, with a little bit of time it won't be too hard to get use to the layout, but it is annoying at first.
Terminology: Facts are now known as "Notes." This change is stupid I think since I always thought calling the primary thing facts and you create cards based on the "facts." But creating "notes" and making cards based on the notes, is just weird.
Models are now "Note Types."
Reviewing Options: Holy ***** options batman. I think a lot of people have longed for a more accessible way to modify the way their decks operate and now you can. Previously many of the options were locked away in the Advanced tab for your deck and was a bit intimidating to modify if you didn't really know what you were doing. Damien has gone and eliminated the Adv. tab and made efforts to present the options in a more digestible manner. You'll need to check out the manual to figure most stuff out.
I want to draw your attention to something new you can now tweak to affect the algorithm that we never could before. Forgetting index
In Anki 1.x the forgetting index was set in the background by the scheduler at 10%. This meant that out of all your mature cards, cards with intervals greater than 28 days, you were expected to forget about 10% of those cards (ie: 90% correct rate on mature cards). This 10% is known as the desired forgetting index. You can now change this to be whatever you want but Damien highly encourages you keep it at 10% since its a pretty solid number balancing learning and retention. There is however a new number you can also tweak: assumed forgetting index. Basically, if you are studying material that is quite difficult and you find that really you are forgetting 15% of the mature cards, then you can come in here and input 15% and it'll jigger the scheduler and try and pull your forgetting back toward 10%. Damien says this isn't automatic because it actually is pretty expensive to calculate so you need to modify it manually.
Studying: Failed and new cards are now put in a mode known as "Learning" where they have 3 buttons instead of 4; Again, Good, Easy. Cards in Learning now also have to go through "Steps." By default there are 2 steps where a card is spaced 1 minute after being answered followed by 10 minutes. You can add more steps in the Study Options sections (Its the text box that has "1 10" => 1 minute followed by 10 minute. 1 5 8 10 would 1min 5min 8min 10min; and so on). My biggest complaint about learning mode is it disrupts study flow. Regular review cards are given 4 buttons. So if for example during studying it switches back to "learning" you'll suddenly find you can't answer using "4." This is a small thing and I'm sure a plugin can be written to lump 4 with 3 in learning mode; nonetheless, annoying if you are trying to get through 400 cards in an hour.
Styling: Damien has really made styling the cards way more accesible. You now have direct access to the CSS sheet, which I don't believe you did in Anki 1.x (easily). Because of the minimalist interface design of 2.0, its shifted my card display up when maximized on my screen instead of being centered. I think with tweaking the style I can get it where I want.
AnkiWeb + Sharing: Damien has moved the Sharing download interface out of the program and appears to be moving it onto the website. He has mentioned he is still working on the interface for the web so its hard to say how it will work. All I know is you can no longer download shared decks or plugins from within Anki--at least at the moment.
Statistics: There is a new graph/stats window. The stats are more informative I feel and presented better but I have only one real complaint. You are stuck with 1 month, 1 year, or Deck life as graph display intervals. You can now export/save an image of the graphs though which is great. The most interesting graph IMO that we currently don't have in Anki 1.x is the "% correct based on time of the day" checking my Core6k deck out, apparently 8am-ish is my best time to review and it goes down hill during the day before picking back up a little bit in the evening.
Misc: The last thing that I have noted is that plugin writers will need to go back and update their plugins to support the new Anki. The "Japanese Support" plugin for instance doesn't work. It could be that they need to placed in the profile folder (a new feature) to work, but I don't see much mention on the manual if that is the case.
Decks: Forgot an important point. There is a new deck format layout. This means that all your decks will need to be migrated to the Anki 2.0 format. The new decks will be moved into the user profile folder and....actually it appears they are all placed into a giant SQLlite database now. (Anki 1.x decks are their own sqlite dbs). The old decks remain where they were, so if you want to rollback to Anki 1.x you can.
So, your own thoughts and reactions?
Edited: 2012-02-18, 1:38 am
and was reminded how much people have contributed. I don't know all names, but foosoft, thurd, cb4960, overture2112 and cangy - you guys are impressive and appreciated.
