[lojban] announce: palm pilot and cross platform lojban tools

[Paul Vigo <lojban-out@lojban.org>]

coi

I've been trying to find the right tools for learning lojban for my pc 
and palm zire31 (the dinkiest one you can buy) and I've come across a 
few things others may like.(I've particularly chosen tools with cross 
platform desktop components as I may be moving to a mac at a later date.)

*Pilot-DB

*http://pilot-db.sourceforge.net/ pilot db page
http://www.chickenshick.com/jpilot-db/index.php desktop editor page.
A freeware opensource database program for the pilot. A cross platform 
(java) desktop editor is available and plugins for working with mobileDB 
files. I'm using this as a dictionary, and have the cmavo, gismu and 
lujvo lists on it (available via global find). If anyone wants copies of 
these databases just email me. (I've also got rafsi and noralujv lists 
but not as clean as I'd like)

*Twinkle flashcards

*http://twinkle.sourceforge.net/
I was looking for a good Leitner system flashcard program for the palm 
(after trying supermemo for a bit but not being happy with a few 
things.)  Leitner system flashcard programs keep track of how well you 
know each card and thus give priority to reviewing cards you find more 
difficult to memorise or unfamiliar, all the while occasionally drilling 
you on cards you know reasonably well to re-enforce memory.

Twinkle fits the bill. It is VERY much like supermemo, though it misses 
a couple of functions. However, it has one very nice feature supermemo 
lacks, you can flip the flashcards if you want, effectively turning your 
lojban-english quiz or drill into an english-lojban one. (With supermemo 
this is only available by developing a duplicate database.) Twinkle 
comes with a slightly buggy but reasonable java desktop application for 
importing supermemo databases, tab, comma or semicolon delimeted files 
(from your spreadsheet) or just plain editing of its flashcard database. 
Documentation isnt really great, and it's still a bit rough around the 
edges, but for free it fits the bill and works a charm, and is still in 
development so can only get better. I've got the vocab flashcard 
database if anyone wants it, or just download the supermemo for palm pdb 
mentioned on the lojban site, use the desktop editor to import it (you 
only need to import one of them!) and tweak what appears on each side of 
the flashcard before dumping it to your palm.

*Pauker and miniPauker flashcards

*http://pauker.sourceforge.net/
http://pauker.sourceforge.net/pauker.php?target=home&lang=en&project=minipauker
Pauker is a cross platform java flashcard program that works on the 
Leitner system and looks rather good. MiniPauker is the tiny java 
version which can run on your pda, phone, or other wee gizmo. This one 
looked like the perfect solution to me as you can drill and quiz your 
vocab both on the palm and via a desktop component (and share the 
databases back and forth). I could only get it about 90% working on my 
palm zire31 (one generation too old for the java vm) but it looks like 
many people have had a lot of success getting it up on all sorts of pdas 
and 3g phones. Well worth a look.

mu'o mi'e pavig





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