JMoji (alpha)
En françaisJMoji is a small application allowing you to learn ideograms. For the moment, only the Hiragana character set is available, but Katakana should soon follow, as well as some Kanjis. It is also highly probable that Hindi will be integrated very soon.
The application is a Java Web Start application. You will have to download the Java 5.0 (or 1.5, depending on the naming scheme) virtual machine. It shouldn't be longer than a few minutes with a broadband connection.
For the technicians amongst you, the application uses the Batik library to interpret an SVG file created with Inkscape, a vector-based drawing application.
So, how does it work?
First, dowload the Hiragana character set and save it as C:\hiragana.svg. (This little twist will disappear very soon), then simply start the application by clicking the above link to download (and start) the application. A security alert will show up and you will have to accept to continue (the application has been signed, but trusted certificates are rather expensive to obtain!).
When a character is shown, you hav to input the phonetic syllab (or phoneme) of this character in the field located underneath and press "Enter" or click the button.
If the phoneme is correct, a new character will be shown.
If the phoneme is incorrect, the background becomes red and the correct phoneme appears in the input field so that you can learn it. Type it in to go to the next character.
At first it will be a bit hard, but you'll see, you'll learn fast...good luck!
New and improved!
21st june 2005
- characters files are now part of the distribution and are then compressed
- the dependencies file size has been reduced from 5Mb to 1.3Mb, thanks to the use of DependenciesArchiver
As you have seen, the application is in (alpha) version; it means that the application development has just been commenced... here is a list of the next things to do, with some predicted date:
- add Katakana (mid-june), some Kanjis (after end of june) and Hindi (july) character sets
- improve random drawing of characters (mid-june)
- implement a document cache (date unpredicted, will depend on compression efficiency)
- implement a learning engine based on past achievements (july)
... a question, a comment? Only one thing to do, jmoji(at)guillaumebertrand(dot)com!