These programs are a collection of tools for practicing written Japanese that were written by me (Douglas Triggs -- douglas@triggs.org), originally for my own use. However, I've cleaned them up a bit and added some features (and programs) to make a nice (I hope) set of tools for use in sharpening anyone's skills in written Japanese. The programs were all written in TCL/TK, because it's a quick and easy prototyping language, and actually dresses up pretty well without too much effort if you spend a little extra time to pretty it up. As I don't actually know Japanese (remember, I wrote these to help teach myself Japanese), a fluent speaker might think that some of the choices I've made in creating these programs are a bit odd, and no doubt I'll change some things when I'm a little more proficient in the language. But, in the meantime, feedback is welcome.
VDrill -- A program for drilling on vocabulary (not
finished)
VQuiz -- A quiz program for learning vocabulary (not
finished)
VDisplay -- A program for browsing the vocabulary
drill dictionary (not finished)
The Libraries
dkana
This is the datafile used by the kana drill programs (as well as the
vocabulary drill programs). It was created (more or less) by hand,
and contains some pretty bizarre non-core characters should you choose
to drill on them (I pretty much chose those by making a list of all
the characters found in the pronunciations in Jim Breen's EDICT). Who
knows if you'll ever see any of those in actual use -- the normal core
characters should be enough for most people, I'd think. At any rate,
it's a fairly small file, since the set of kana characters isn't so
very large.
The readings and meanings in my kanji dictionary are heavily influenced by the Halpern dictionaries, especially the readings, which I've tended to use as the definitive source when dictionaries disagreed (the actual spellings -- see my note on romanization below -- come from KANJIDIC2. I don't include all of the readings, and in particular tend to exclude suffixes that vary from other readings only by voicing the initial consonant. Rightly or wrongly, I think that those readings can be inferred. So, the readings in my dictionary are by no means exactly as in Halpern, although they're probably more similar to them than any other sources). I've also used a similar concept to the Halpern dictionaries for meanings (that is, the use of core meanings), although the specific ones I've chosen are often more similar to the meanings in KANJIDIC2, or synonyms I've preferred, and were sometimes chosen to minimize confusion (as much as possible) with other characters that have similar meanings, so the specific core meanings in my dictionary file often don't quite match the core meanings in Halpern.
In addition to the default dkjdict, any alternate dictionary files are stored in the data subdirectory. Currently, these are the manually created file (dkjdict.dbt, the same as the default kanji dictionary) and one directly generated from KANJIDIC2 (dkjdict.k2 -- this one is a little messy, but has far more coverage than the manually created file). Either one can be dropped into the main directory and only need to be renamed to dkjdict.
Documentation
This documentation (index.html) is found in the docs
subdirectory, along with all the other program documentation and
screenshots. The latest copy is also found on the web at http://www.lensflare.com/~doubt/japanese/.
Installation
The latest version is pre-1.0d (a Kana/Kanji only
release), and is available in the following formats:
Installing the Programs
To get these to work, all you need to do is unpack them into the
directory of your choice. You do need to run them from that directory
(otherwise they won't be able to find their dictionary files). If
you're running them under Windows, a shortcut to any of the
executables will work, as it uses the executable's directory as its
home directory by default.System Requirements
The programs should work under any operating system that has TCL/TK
installed (I've tested them under Linux/X and Win98). But you do, of
course, need TCL/TK. If you're using Windows (or if it isn't
available as a package under the OS/distribution of your choice), I
suggest getting it from ActiveState,
as I've had good results using their various distributions. Or, you
could simply compile TCL/TK yourself (see the TCL/TK developer site).
In addition, you'll need Japanese font support. Under X, the programs
require the Watanabe fonts; MS Mincho works fine under Windows (it
comes with Microsoft's Far-Eastern Support kit, which you probably
also need for older versions of Windows). Both of these are available
from Jim Breen's Monash Nihongo
FTP Archive (look under "fonts") if you can't find them otherwise
or don't already have them installed.
These programs are made available without any waranty of accuracy or
fitness for any particular purpose. While I make no guarantee that
the information in the dictionaries is complete or without error, if
you do find any errors in the data (or any bugs in the programs, or
just feel like it), please feel free to drop me a line at douglas@triggs.org.
However: I don't own all of the features of these programs. The SKIP
and Frequency numbers are used with permission of Jack Halpern
[assuming, at this point, that I'll get permission], and would require
his permission to be copied from my data (or in any derived works).
[Presumably a statement to that effect will end up here. We've been
busy talking about other things lately. When he hasn't been busy
doing whatever he's busy doing.]
Addtional Notes
For my kanji readings, I've used a fairly odd form of romanization
that is a more direct transliteration of the kana. Instead of using
the more standard "oo" for a long "o" as in Hepburn, I've taken to
using "ou" as it's usually spelled that way in the kana, with "oo"
being used on the rare occasions when it's spelled that other way
(such as in "ookii"). I rationalize this as being the best way to
learn readings. It's difficult for most people to enter kana directly
into the fields (I don't support it, anyway), so this is the next best
thing, as you're learning it the way the kana is actually "spelled,"
and not so much the way that romanizations approximate the sound, as
I'm primarily concerned with how Japanese is written here, not how
it's spoken. I've done other things to the readings, as well, such as
collapsing unvoiced and voiced readings (in many cases) into one
unvoiced reading. I figure (rightly or wrongly -- alas, I'm still
learning this stuff myself) that the voiced version can often be
inferred when the reading is found as a suffix.License
The copyright to these programs (and this documentation) is owned by
me (Douglas Triggs). However, these programs can be used freely for
non-commercial purposes, all I ask is that it be distributed as-is --
that is, unmodified, and as the complete distribution. (I may drop
these restrictions when I'm done screwing with it, but for the moment,
I'm still working on things.)Acknowledgements
Special thanks to... Well, I'll stick some people in here when I know
who you are. :)
[ changelog ]