Anki?

resolve Member

From: 山口 Registered: 2007-05-29 Posts: 919 Website

.. it won't cause your system to explode however, so please give it a test! The more feedback I get on the beta, the quicker I can release 0.3. :-)

Cmaj7 New member

From: Italy Registered: 2006-04-05 Posts: 6

I just downloaded and tried the mac beta.
It's a lot faster than old 0.28 but also more cluttered. the over-coloured kde icons are really distracting and also when removing the menu-bar (in the program window), it comes back after a restart.
another custom option I'd like the program to remember is to show card stats by default. It's very useful to have it always there.

Eager to see how the final interface will come out. As for now, thanks for this great piece of software!

resolve Member

From: 山口 Registered: 2007-05-29 Posts: 919 Website

Beta4 is out.

The number one priority at the moment is smooth upgrades from 0.2.8. This means trying to load your old deck, and making sure that all cards have been correctly imported. The deck structure between 0.2.8 and 0.3 is too different to realistically maintain support for both at once, so when I release 0.3 I will automatically upgrade all decks on the website. Obviously this is something I don't want to do until the upgrade process and new version have had some testing. So please at least try and upgrade your own deck and let me know if you have any troubles.

The second priority is bugs in the user interface: menu items that don't work, errors that pop up. I don't think there's many left now, but if you find any please let me know.

Feedback on the new interface and pointing out the parts that are missing is welcome, but not as important as making sure the backend is okay. See my next post for more on that.

- On Windows, click the 'open samples' dir and then choose the samples
directory. It doesn't do this automatically for you because it's in a zip file
instead of an installer.
- On mac, the samples have been upgraded since the last beta, so remove the
samples folder from ~/Documents/ before starting.

Win: http://repose.cx/dump/anki-0.3.0-beta4.zip
Mac: http://repose.cx/dump/Anki.dmg

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resolve Member

From: 山口 Registered: 2007-05-29 Posts: 919 Website

cmaj7: thanks for trying it out and letting me know what you think. Your post was interesting in that it highlights the different way a developer and a user sees a piece of software.

The biggest changes (in my eyes) in Anki 0.3 are in the backend: the way cards and pieces of information are stored is completely different to previous versions of Anki, resulting in a lot more flexibility: multiple languages and types of information can be studied in one deck, users are free to customize the layout and number of cards, cards which are different representations of the same data can be easily spaced apart, tags can be used at 4 different levels and make features like suspending, marking and prioritization easy.

These changes have taken a couple of months and required rewriting half of the internals of Anki. I'm keen to push them out as quickly as possible, because they address many desires that users have expressed in the past. And unlike the user interface, the backend is not something that can be easily changed with point releases: it needs to be stable.

So in my eyes, polishing the GUI is a lower priority than getting 0.3 out: once it's out and people have upgraded to it and are using it comfortably, it's quick and simple to push out point releases which address things like a configurable toolbar.

I understand that it's different from a user perspective, and changes that aren't visible in the user interface are effectively no changes at all. I think "users will want the ability to disable the toolbar, but that's easy and I can add support for that as soon as the backend is stable", and users think "I can't believe he's forced us to use the toolbar!"

I guess it boils down to different expectations. I should have been more clear about why I was putting out a beta and what sort of testing would be most useful right now. :-)

Cmaj7 New member

From: Italy Registered: 2006-04-05 Posts: 6

of course, I understand and I think just like you
by the way 0.4 seems sweet.
I'm using your samples from 2.7 to study JLPT2 vocabs, they converted 100% fine, my progress included

akrodha Member

From: Miami, FL Registered: 2006-08-30 Posts: 98 Website

I wanted to complain about Beta 3 not importing my old v0.2.8 .fc files correctly, but Beta 4 seems to have corrected this. It's coming along really well!

sutebun Member

From: Oregon Registered: 2007-06-29 Posts: 172

If anyone reads this who hasn't tried out Anki, try it now!

The flexibility available in the program is amazing. Resolve is also a really cool guy; not only is he sharing the early beta versions here, but if you send bug fixes or even suggestions he won't just pass over them. I've had a few lengthy messages sent back and forth between other just discussing certain bugs and ideas and each time it really demonstrated he cares a ton about this project and is willing to talk to users a ton.

If you haven't tried an SRS yet, give it a whirl and see what you think. If you use the cards correctly, you'd be amazed how easily you can remember/gain knowledge.

littleblue Member

From: Kyoto Registered: 2007-05-29 Posts: 11

Thanks for all your great work resolve! As a fellow programmer I admire your dedication to your software

Just a quick comment that is annoying but in no way a major issue - Every time I swicth between Japanese & English input methods on my mac, anki puts a space in if im on the add card screen or answers a question if im on the main screen and a card is up

resolve Member

From: 山口 Registered: 2007-05-29 Posts: 919 Website

It's a bug in QT - I fixed it in 0.2.8 but haven't got around to it in the new card editor. I'll fix it again before releasing 0.3 :-)

johnzep Member

From: moriya, ibaraki Registered: 2006-05-14 Posts: 373

When do you expect the website / mobile flashcards to be updated to the 0.3 beta software?

I love reviewing on my phone ^_^

Mighty_Matt Member

From: Koga Registered: 2006-07-18 Posts: 197 Website

Resolve,

Just a quick point as I know you're busy working on the beta's. One of my cards has a Japanese side that starts 'UN' (ie. not japanese). This text always comes up much smaller when reviewing than the other cards...

The text is:

UNとは、国連の事です。

if you want to see if it's the same for you...

resolve Member

From: 山口 Registered: 2007-05-29 Posts: 919 Website

johnzep: the next beta will support syncing to a test server, and once that is tested I will probably release 0.3

mighty_matt: that's a bug in the old deck format. It shouldn't happen on 0.3 (have you tried a beta?)

wzafran Member

From: Malaysia Registered: 2007-05-16 Posts: 88 Website

Hi resolve,

The big fan (aka me) says: Expect me to write a great deal on Anki, and to offer as many suggestions and/or note down whatever bugs I encounter and find in as prolific a manner as possible.

Keep up the great work!

P/S: Graphs still, as a feature, do not work on my computer. I wonder why? Also, using 'b' or 'i' tags seems to create a problem. (The ending '/b' or '/i' tag is ignored, thus the tag will span throughout the whole card after when it is first used.)

P/P/S: How do you use the 'facts' tags? I don't quite understand what is meant by its explanation: "...fact tags are tags which will be applied to all cards made from this data."

Last edited by wzafran (2007 July 27, 9:06 pm)

resolve Member

From: 山口 Registered: 2007-05-29 Posts: 919 Website

Hi wzafran,

Thanks for your enthusiasm! I think I've tracked down the graphs problem - please try this:

http://repose.ath.cx/tracker/anki/issue64

Fact tags apply to all 'sides' of a card: for example if your model generates two cards (native -> japanese and japanese -> native), the fact tags will match both cards. Contrast card tags, which only apply to a single card. This allows you to do things like suspend all native -> japanese cards (once I add 'apply tag to selected cards' support in the editor), or mark individual cards for later review/editing/etc.

Re the HTML, that sounds like a bug in the escaping of HTML. I'll look into it!

Edit: yep, it was a bug. Fixed now. Note that at some point in the future, Anki will provide bold/italic/insert image buttons so that most users don't need to revert to HTML.

Last edited by resolve (2007 July 28, 2:17 am)

wrightak Member

From: Tokyo Registered: 2006-04-07 Posts: 873 Website

Any plans for support for importing decks from Supermemo?

resolve Member

From: 山口 Registered: 2007-05-29 Posts: 919 Website

I looked into it. Mnemosyne includes support for a 'supermemo 7' format, but I don't know if it's even possible to export to that format in recent versions.

What particular type of supermemo file do you want to import? What versions generate it? Where are the docs for it? Where is an example file I can test on?

(If it's a supermemo7 file, you could always import it in mnemosyne and then import the mnemosyne file in Anki :-)

Last edited by resolve (2007 July 28, 4:41 am)

wrightak Member

From: Tokyo Registered: 2006-04-07 Posts: 873 Website

I'll get back to you on this one. There are various options for exporting from Supermemo 2006 and I'll see if I can identify which one would be easiest to use.

Re beta4. A few bugs which I will report on your site but otherwise absolutely awesome. The flexibility you have in constructing cards and creating reviewing methods is by far and away the best thing about it. Still exploring all of the features but just brilliant so far. What I've been waiting for for ages. Will write in detail later.

wzafran Member

From: Malaysia Registered: 2007-05-16 Posts: 88 Website

resolve wrote:
Fact tags apply to all 'sides' of a card: for example if your model generates two cards (native -> japanese and japanese -> native), the fact tags will match both cards. Contrast card tags, which only apply to a single card. This allows you to do things like suspend all native -> japanese cards (once I add 'apply tag to selected cards' support in the editor), or mark individual cards for later review/editing/etc.

Do tags work in the same way as web tags (e.g. del.icio.us, flickr)? And how should I label each card? E.g. do they work as category-listings (e.g. tagging a card by 'sentences', 'grammar', 'vocabulary') or is there some other logic behind it? I didn't quite get your explanation.

I've also been playing around with the models feature, and I've come to the conclusion that it also allows you to use Anki for flashcard studies of other subjects as well. That's correct, yes?

resolve Member

From: 山口 Registered: 2007-05-29 Posts: 919 Website

Tags are useful in many ways:

- displaying some cards at a higher or lower priority than others
- limiting in the editor (displaying only cards with a given tag)
- suspending cards from review
- marking cards to check later (look up in a dictionary, etc)
- limiting (reviewing only cards with a certain tag - currently no explicit support is available but you can accomplish the same thing by putting that certain tag at the top of the priority list)
- categorisation (future export code will let you export a specified list of tags to export)

There are 4 different levels of tags. The model defines a list of tags, these are general tags like "Japanese". The individual card models define more specific tags like "from English to Japanese". Fact tags and card tags are more specific. For example, you could tag a bunch of facts with 'genki 1 lesson 12'. In the future the add cards dialog will automatically remember the last tags you entered.

You're right, Anki 0.3 is designed so that you can study anything with it, not just languages. More explicit support for images and latex (for studying math) will come in the future.

resolve Member

From: 山口 Registered: 2007-05-29 Posts: 919 Website

Oh, and things like the graph facilities will support displaying graphs for certain tags as well. The goal is to be able to accomplish everything you can with multiple decks within a single deck. This allows you to treat your knowledge as a whole, but also to narrow down to specific parts of it.

EuPcsl Member

From: Spain Registered: 2007-04-18 Posts: 57

I like a lot your software. It is very promising and can become the best SRS software system for japanese. Keep up the good work .
By the way, can you develop categories like in Mnemosyne? I use categories to select what chapter of RTK want to review and is useful for manage large groups of kanji.

I'm Spanish (as you can see reading my poor english) so I want to have Anki in my own language. Can I support you translating this program into spanish?

Last edited by Pcsl88 (2007 July 29, 12:49 am)

resolve Member

From: 山口 Registered: 2007-05-29 Posts: 919 Website

Hi Pcsl88,

Anki supports any interface language, I just need people to translate it for me!

The text strings from Anki are at:

http://repose.cx/dump/catfiles/ankiqt.pot

You can edit the files with a program like poedit:

http://www.poedit.net/screenshots.php

If you send me an edited file (an incomplete translation is okay), I will include it in the next release of Anki.

Re categories: 'tags' in Anki are the same thing as categories, but they are more flexible. In the future Anki will provide a drop-down list of previously used tags to make selecting them easier.

Last edited by resolve (2007 July 29, 12:52 am)

aircawn Member

From: Australia Registered: 2006-07-18 Posts: 166

Hi Resolve.

I've downloaded Beta4 and extracted it to a folder in C:\Program Files\ on a machine that hasn't run Anki before. I'm trying to import my Mnemosyne information but I'm getting varied results.

Settings are:
Type of File: Mnemosyne (*.mem)
File to Import: default.mem <-- (It doesn't show the full path)
Using Model: Japanese

Field 0 in file is: Expression in model
Field 1 in file is: Meaning in model

After I click Import it updates the status window with: "Importing, Anki will freeze for a while.." and goes no further. Looking at the Task Manager, Anki.exe is taking a flat 50% CPU time. This is a dual core processor... Memory usable is stable though. After killing Anki's task and rerunning the import I get the same problem.

Here's the thing: while the import is supposedly running the interface is still active and I can play with the controls and menu all I want... I can even 'quit' Anki but the process is still going and needs to be killed via the Task Manager. The difference here is after quitting Anki though the interface, a 4k 'mydeck.fc' is created in my Homedir. Still, anki.exe needs to be killed.

But if I rerun the import with the mydeck.fc file already there, it will complete sucessfully. Except... I'll have exactly double the items in the deck as what exists in Mnemosyne and half of said doubled-up deck will be due for review immediately.

I don't know if I'm doing something wrong here...

The Mnemosyne database was created using Mnemosyne 0.9.8.1
The OS is Vista.

Cheers.

Yufina Member

From: Finland Registered: 2007-06-18 Posts: 49

wow! New Beta ^^

But when i extract anki folder on my desktop and try to run it. I got following error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "ankiqt.py", line 54, in <module>
File "ui\main.pyc", line 24, in __init__
File "ui\main.pyc", line 780, in setLang
File "gettext.pyc", line 465, in translation
File "gettext.pyc", line 448, in find
File "ntpath.pyc", line 102, in join
UnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xf6 in position 34: ordinal not in range(128)

resolve Member

From: 山口 Registered: 2007-05-29 Posts: 919 Website

aircrawn: Please send me your mnemosyne deck and I'll check what's causing the import to fail.

Re: getting exactly double the number of cards, that's because the default model uses two cards. Before importing, click the "edit model" button and disable/delete the card format you don't want. I'll have to improve the documentation on this in the future.

Yufina: it's a bug in the backing up of files which have non-latin characters. It'll be fixed in the next beta (due in 1-2 days)

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resolve wrote: