NAME¶
kdrill - drill program for kanji chars under Xwindows (X11R5 or better is
required to run) kdrill also does dictionary lookup
Yikes.. this man-page is getting huge. But I am a great believer in having
proper documentation. Hopefully, this new format will help instead of hinder.
At some future point in time, I shall convert this huge beast to HTML. But that
point is not now. [Although actually, you CAN go to
http://www.bolthole.com/kdrill/ for
some help ]
TIP: "/WORD" usually takes you to the next occurrence of
"WORD", if you are viewing this using a "man"-like
program.
SECTIONS (of this man page)¶
RUNTIME OPTIONS
RESOURCES
DESCRIPTION
PLAYING
PLAYING OPTIONS
LEARNING NEW CHARS
USEFILES
SEARCH
KEYBOARD ACCELERATORS
CONFIGURATION DETAILS
LOGFILES AND MISSED KANJI
KANJIDIC and EDICT
RUNTIME OPTIONS¶
[Note: most of these options are now somewhat redundant. Kdrill now auto-saves
its options. But just in case you want to know about these commandline
options...]
- -usefile NewUsefileName
- Change name of usefile, which lets you drill on specific
characters.
- -nousefile
- Still read in usefile if it exists, but ignore it at
startup.
- -kdictfile OtherKanjidicFile
- Use a different dictionary file name. You may have
"hira.dic" or "kata.dic" installed, as well as
"kanjidic", for example.
- -edictfile OtherKanjidicFile
- Use a different edict-style-dictionary file name.
"none" for no edict.
- -englishfont FontName
- Changes only english display of english-guess buttons.
- -kanjifont KanjiFontName
- Change large kanji font.
- -smallkanji KanjiFontName
- Change small kanji/kana font for kana-guess buttons.
- -noBell
- Turns off beep on wrong answer.
- -guessmode
-
say whether you want the guess choices to be in "english",
"kanji", or "kana"
- -questionmode
-
say whether you want the 'question' to be in "english",
"kanji", or "kana"
- -showinorder
- Start in ordered mode. Go through desired kanji in order of
#.
- -gradelevel <level #s>
- Start with different grade levels enabled. A string with
one or more of [123456+]
- -showkana
- Start with kana meanings instead of english.
- -lowfrequency #, -highfrequency #
- Set lowest and/or highest frequency kanji you want to
see.
- -logfile filename
- Change filename to log current errors to (with
"Log" button)
- -notallT
- Don't insist that all dictionary entries have kana AND
English. WARNING! Normal operation is to ignore incomplete entries,
and thereby enable switching from kana to english without changing the
quiz kanji. Using this option will make kdrill move to another kanji if
you switch kana to English or vica versa.
[ default behaviour currently loses 300 kanji, with the kanjidic file I
have currently. All characters with Frequency ratings have full
translations. ]
RESOURCES¶
Kdrill now saves config options in $HOME/.kdrill, in X-resource format. The
latest configuration will automatically be saved when you quit kdrill
normally. If you want to change kdrill's settings, and you dont see a way to
do it in the options popup, you can probably change it in the global
"KDrill" resource file, or in your personal
"$HOME/.kdrill" file. See the sample "KDrill" file for
more detail, which is often installed in /usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/KDrill, or
someplace similar. Values in $HOME/.kdrill will override the global settings.
Colors¶
You may change the background of the windows using a resource file, as mentioned
above.
DESCRIPTION¶
kdrill is a program to drill users on meanings of kanji characters.
Various formats of drills are available:
kanji --\ /--- kanji
kana --*-- kana
english --/ \-- english
PLAYING¶
kdrill will present you with a kanji (or kana or english phrase) and five
possible meanings for it. Your goal is to guess which one matches the kanji at
the top. Initially, it will choose randomly from the
entire dictionary,
so you will probably want to narrow the range, via the OPTIONS section, below.
Any grade level or frequency rating the current kanji has will be displayed in
the top right hand side of the window, next to the "G:" and
"F:" letters. The kanji index number will be displayed after the
"#:" sign.
Click with your primary mouse button (usually the left one) on one of the
multiple-choice answered to see how well you know the lone kanji or meaning.
You may also use the number keys to make your choice. [1,2,3,4,5]
If you guess correctly, you will move on to another character. If you guess
incorrectly, you will have to guess again. Furthermore, kdrill will make a
note that you didn't know either the character displayed, or the character for
the incorrect meaning you clicked on.
If you are playing in random order, kdrill will randomly repeat the ones you
have missed. You will have to get a missed character right twice for kdrill to
think you know it. If you miss a character more than once, you will have to
repeat the character two times the number of times you missed it. If you are
playing in order, kdrill will keep to the order, and not go back. It will
still remember ones you have missed, however, and will go back to them if you
later switch to random order.
There are two ways of "cheating", if you are learning new characters,
and don't want to have an incorrect guess recorded. One way is to press the
"cheat" button, and the correct answer will be highlighted. The
other way is to make a guess with button 2 on your mouse. The character of the
one you clicked on will appear in the search window. If the search window was
not already open, it will appear when you do this.
PLAYING OPTIONS¶
If you want to change the way the game works while playing, you can bring up the
options window by pressing the options button. If you know how you want the
game to play before starting it, you can most likely do what you want with a
command-line option, described at the top of this man-page. If you want to
permanently change an option, see the "RESOURCES" header, above.
The following options are to help narrow down the range of kanji you get quizzed
on.
- Grades
-
You may specify which grade levels you wish to study, by clicking on the
buttons labeled: "1", "2", "3",
"4", "5", "6", "+", or
"All", in the "Grade Select" window. You may also
select/unselect a grade by holding down shift, followed by "1",
"2", "3", "4", "5", "6",
"+", or "a", in the main window.
The "All" feature will select all grades. but it will not unselect
them.
The default is to have all the grades enabled.
-
Frequency
-
Some kanji have frequency ratings. That means that, in real life, some kanji
are used more frequently than others. Frequency rating 1 means that this
is the most frequently used character. The frequency of the true
answer you are guessing will be displayed in the top right of the main
window, next to the "F:" sign, if a frequency rating exists.
The frequency range area in the options window allows you to limit the kanji
you see based on their frequency rating. The frequency range area consists
of two smaller input areas; "High", and "Low".
High means a kanji that is high frequency. That is to say,
something that is used often. According to the definitions of the
dictionary, "1" means the kanji that is used the most
often. A frequency rating of "2" means that the character has a
lower frequency than "1". The most frequently used kanji
is the character for "day", which is "F: 1".
Setting a number in the "High" window limits high frequency kanji.
If there is a number in the "High" window, that means that you
will see no kanji that is of higher frequency than that number. Similarly,
setting a number in the "Low" window means that you will see no
kanji of frequency lower than that number. 2000 is a "Low"
frequency kanji. If you put 2000 in the "Low" area, you would
see nothing of lower frequency than the character rated at 2000 (which
happens to be "hazy") that you would see nothing
A blank in the "High" or "Low" fields indicates no limit
in the field. If you try to set either window to "0", it will
automatically set itself blank for you.
- Order
-
It is possible to be drilled on kanji in order, without repetition, until
"all" kanji have been covered. Any restrictions on grade level
or frequency will still apply. To enable or disable ordering, click on the
"Showing randomly" (or "Showing in order") button in
the options window.
Note that "in order" does not mean in order of frequency.
It means in the order represented by the dictionary, denoted by the '#'
number shown at top right. This happens to be the JIS-encoding of the
Kanji, which we also call the kanji index.
- TIP: A good way to start learning a range of chars,
is to select the
- "in order" option, and a particular grade level
and/or frequency range. Press 'C' (Shift-c) for super-cheat. This will
both highlight the correct answer, AND show the full kanji+kana+english
meanings in the popup search window!
When you have looked at it enough, click on the correct answer to move on to
the next kanji.
Or rather than use the super-cheat option repeatedly... Read the next
section.
LEARNING NEW CHARS¶
If you would like a small little window to memorize new chars in, instead of the
bulkier 'main' or 'search' windows, there is now a 'learn' window. Pressing
the (learn) button on the main window will bring up the learn window, which
only displays kanji, kana, and english meanings of a char. Pressing one of the
'next' buttons will select a new char for you to look at, using the same rules
of choosing that the main window uses. (grade levels, and an optional usefile)
USEFILES¶
A usefile is a way to tell kdrill "I want to be quizzed on these kanji, and
ONLY these specific kanji". Generally speaking, it is easier to just pick
a particular grade level or frequency range to quiz yourself on. But if you
know you want specific kanji (for example, to study for a class!) having a
usefile is very useful.
Grade and Frequency restrictions will apply, even if you have a usefile. Thus,
if all your usefile-defined kanji are of grade 4 or higher, and you have only
selected grades 3 and lower, kdrill will complain that there are not enough
kanji available, and attempt to add viewable grade levels until there are
enough value kanji to quiz on
To add or remove a kanji from the "usefile", pull up the search
window, and view a particular kanji. The "usefile" button at the far
right will be highlighted if it is in the usefile list. You can toggle the
button to set the status as you wish.
If you want to see all the kanji in your usefile, click on the "show"
button, below the "usefile" toggle, in the search window. It will
then show you the current list, and pressing on one will display it in the
search window. You can then remove it via the "usefile" toggle if
you like.
When you quit kdrill, it will update the usefile, IF you have a minimum number
in the list (currently, 10). If you want to know if you have enough, use the
options window to toggle "No Usefile" to "Using Usefile".
It will not let you, if there are not enough characters in the list.
If you wish kdrill to ignore your usefile when you start it up, you may use the
-nousefile option.
- Usefile format
-
If you want to edit a usefile by hand, this is the format:
A usefile consists of a list of hex numbers; one per line, no initial spaces
allowed. A usefile lets the program know you are interested in certain
kanji, from the thousands listed in the dictionary. It is possible to add
comment lines by having the very first character of a line be
"#". However, those will be overwritten if you make changes from
within the program. Hex numbers can be checked or found by using the
"xfd" util on the "kanji24" font. Alternatively, you
could use the search window or main kdrill window. In on of the
"#" input boxes, type in "0x", and then the hex
number. It is best to do this in the search window, since the main window
may have range restrictions on it.
SEARCH¶
It is now possible to search for a character in kdrill. You may search for an
English phrase, a kana phrase, or a particular kanji.
kdrill will automatically show the first match. If there is more than one match,
it will be shown in a secondary popup window. That window can be changed to
display the english, kanji, or kana meaning of each dictionary entry. Click on
one to have it displayed in the main search window.
Additionally, if a search turns up a kanji phrase instead of a single kanji, you
may click on the phrase at the top of the search window, to have the secondary
multi-listing window display the individual kanji for you to examine in
further detail.
- English search
-
First, bring up the search window by pressing the search button. Then, enter
an English word (or fragment) in the bottom-most section of the window,
and press return or enter. The window will then display the first kanji it
finds that has that word in its definition, along with its index number,
grade, and other information available, if any.
-
Kana search
-
If you want to search for a kana phrase, you now have TWO options!
For more experienced users, you can finally type in that tempting kana
window. There is no little ^ cursor, but dont worry about that. DO
worry about the following conventions:
Type "n " (n,space) to convert a ending 'n' to kana
Press "'" for small-tsu. (type "chotto" as
"cho'to")
Press "-" for kana elongation. ("bi-ru")
Press backspace to erase the last char.
Press return to start the search.
For a pointy-clicky method of input, press the "kana search"
button. This will pop up the kana seach window. (Press it again to remove
the window.) Press the kana(s) you want to search for. The chars you press
will be shown next to the "kana search" button in the main
search window. When you have the phrase ready, press the [Search] box.
If your kana recognition isn't all it should be, you can toggle romaji mode
in the options popup (via "options" from the main window).
Additionally, if you don't know katakana, but want to translate a katakana
phrase, use the <=> button to toggle between hiragana and katakana.
Note that even if you are in katakana input mode, it will print out your
buttonpresses as hiragana. This is because the search engine treats
hiragana and katakana identically.
If you make a mistake, press the <- button, or backspace, to erase the
last char.
The characters you press will appear at the bottom of the popup, and also on
the main search window next to the kana search button. As noted above, if
you make a mistake typing, use the <- button on the kana window to
erase, or the backspace key.
- KANJI SEARCH
-
You now have a multiple ways to look up Kanji.
- 4-corner Kanji search
-
If you want to find a kanji by shape, press the kanji search button on the
search window. This will bring up the kanji search window. Press it again
to remove the kanji search window.
This window employes the "4-corner method" of lookup. The 4-corner
method has lots of strange rules to it. I strongly recommend that you read
the description that comes in the kanjidic document file. It is impossible
for me to cover all details here.
In brief, you have to press each corner of the center box, and select one of
the ten elements from the top row, that best matches that corner of the
kanji you want to look up. For those already familiar with the 4-corner
method, the "blank" element is an alias for the first element.
There are still only 10 possible positions.
Press the paragraph button (backwards 'P') when you are ready to search.
For those NOT already familiar with the 4-corner method... unfortunately, it
sounds easy, but it is really horribly difficult, and I again refer you to
the documentation that comes with the kanjidic dictionary file. Look for
"kanjidic.doc"
- SKIP Kanji search
-
Pressing the "Kanji SKIP search" button, will bring up the SKIP
window. This window has directions on it already. Follow the directions to
define what the kanji looks like.
- Kanji cut-n-paste lookup
-
For ELECTRONIC lookup... if you view Japanese text online with a program
like "kterm", you can now select a single kanji in kterm, and
paste it into a special "drop target" in the search window. It
is to the far right of the "kanji" search button.
If you highlight multiple characters, kdrill will now only look for an exact
match of all characters you paste in. (up to 4 chars). Multi-char matching
will NOT WORK, unless you have downloaded the additional dictionary,
"edict"
Note: There is a BUG in some versions of netscape 4.x. If you are viewing
kanji in a frame, you can seemingly highlight a character, but it will not
cut-n-paste to kdrill, or anywhere else. If this occurs, use right-click
to "open frame in new window", where you will be able to use
cut-n-paste. Cut-n-paste from netscape was also improved in version
5.9.6
- MATCH SIMILAR KANJI
-
If you have a kanji already showing in the search window, and you are using
the 'edict' dictionary, you can search the large dictionary for occurences
of the current kanji. Press the "match" button next to the kanji
display.
- What are all those letters?
-
The top row; "G, F, #", all refer to the basic indexes that are
shown in the mail kdrill window. They stand for "Grade, Frequency,
and Index #", respectively.
H denotes the index in the "Halperin" dictionary
N denotes the index in the "Nelson" dictionary
Ux denotes the "Unicode" of the kanji. It is Ux to
make it stand out as the only one that expects input in Hexadecimal. This
is because that is the way the dictionary has it.
For all windows with the little ^ in them, you can change the values. When
you press return or enter in them, kdrill will attempt to find a match for
what you just entered. If it can find no match, it will blank out all
fields displayed.
You can use this jump-to-index feature in the main window too. However, the
main window will keep any restrictions you might have while doing the
search (limits by usefile, grade, or frequency limit).
The search window ignores any restrictions on the main window, and searches
the entire on-line dictionary.
KEYBOARD ACCELERATORS¶
Almost everything has a keyboard shortcut in kdrill.
Key Action
1,2,3,4,5 Make a guess
Shift+(123456+) Change grade levels used
c (C)heat
C Super(C)heat
e Guess (e)nglish definision
k Guess which (k)anji fits
m Guess which kana (m)eaning fits
E Quiz on (E)nglish
K Quiz on (K)anji
M Quiz on kana (M)eaning
l popup (l)earn window
n (n)ext char, IF in learn window
o Toggle in-(o)rder drill
O Bring up (O)ptions window
p Go back to (p)revious
Control+q (Q)uit kdrill
u Toggle (u)sefile usage.
s (S)earch for a Kanji
T Timer start/stop
x clear missed count
Additionally, the Sun keyboard "Find" (F19) and "Props"
(F13) keys are bound to the search and options windows, respectively.
CONFIGURATION DETAILS¶
kdrill checks for a file by the name of
.kanjiusefile in the current
directory, although this name can be changed either with the '-usefile'
option, or in a resource file.
kdrill also checks for a logfile, named
kdrill.log by default, in the
current directory. This can be changed with the -logfile option, or in a
resource file. See "LOGFILES AND MISSED KANJI", below.
kdrill uses a file called "kanjidic" (which does not come in the
source package) to interpret many of the various 16-bit kanji chars in the
kanji24 font supplied with the X11R5 distribution. This file should be
in a place accessible to all users. Normally it would be in /usr/local/lib or
somewhere similar.
kanjidic subdivides its entries into grade levels, and frequency ratings.
Grade levels are similar to school grade levels, but more compressed. For
kdrill's purposes, grade levels start at 1, and increase to 6. There are many
kanji that do not have a grade level, due to their infrequency of use, or
other reasons. These are denoted by the "+" character in the grade
select window.
The user can restrict the range of kanji to drill on in different, yet
compatible, ways. The first way is to make a ".kanjiusefile" with a
an explicit list of desired kanji. (described above in "USEFILES"),
Changes you make to the "Grade Select" window or the "Frequency
Range" section will not do anything until you supply the correct match to
the current drill-question (or press the english/kana toggle button).
Keep in mind that the xfd font tool and other applications may refer to kanji
characters by a
hexadecimal number. You may enter a hexadecimal number
by starting it with "0x". For example, "0x315c". To
maintain compatibility with the dictionary, the kdrill "usefile"
expects hexadecimal input, not decimal input. Similarly, the logfile also
stores kanji in hexadecimal format. This makes it easy to use a log file of
kanji you have missed as a usefile, for repeated drilling.
LOGFILES AND MISSED KANJI¶
Every time you guess incorrectly, kdrill makes a note. It later will give you
extra practice on ones you missed, if you are playing in random order. It will
only repeat a missed character about 25% of the time. The more you miss a
particular character, the more kdrill will repeat showing it to you.
You can store a list of your incorrect answers by pressing the "Log"
button. kdrill will then write out all the kanji characters it thinks you do
not know into the logfile. This will erase any information previously in that
logfile. kdrill will also automatically update the logfile when it quits The
next time you start up kdrill, it will automatically read in the logfile, if
it exists.
The logfile is named "kdrill.log", by default. You may change the name
of the logfile with the -logfile option.
It is a good idea to press "Log" just before quitting kdrill. That
way, it will remember which characters you are weak on, for the next time you
play. It will then go back to those characters from time to time, if you play
in "random" order. If you do not press "Log", kdrill will
not save a record of what you have missed.
Alternatively, you can use the logfile as a usefile. kdrill will then only quiz
you on those kanji you missed. If you choose to do this, it is a good idea to
copy the log file over to a different file. That way, you can make a logfile
for your new usefile. For example, in UNIX;
cp kdrill.log kdrill.usefile kdrill -usefile kdrill.usefile
The total number of missed entries is shown in the main window. If there are
just too many for your comfort (learning new kanji can be difficult!) you can
ERASE THE COUNT with your backspace or delete key.
KANJIDIC and EDICT¶
The dictionary for kdrill, kanjidic, is currently available where it originated,
via ftp from
ftp.monash.edu.au, or from a mirror in the U.S. at
ftp.uwtc.washington.edu. Likewise for the "edict" dictionary. There
are many other mirror sites mentioned on the kdrill web page. (See below)
At the monash site, both the dictionary and this program can currently be found
in
/pub/nihongo
This program's primary ftp site is now ftp.bolthole.com.
There is also an official kdrill URL;
-
http://www.bolthole.com/kdrill/
-
This currently shows you some screen-shots, and mentions the ftp sites.
BUGS¶
"kanjidic" isn't perfect. There are "incomplete" entries,
missing either English or kana translations. There are also entries consisting
of "See Nxxxx", which isn't really an improvement. Note that you can
now use the search window to follow those "See Nxxxx" references! [
Just search for that Nxxx, as if doing a search for English ]
Likewise, this man page may be incomplete!
AUTHOR¶
Philip P. Brown
(Who has finally taken a format Japanese lesson! Which helped a lot,
but am now back on the slow "self-taught" track. sigh! shikatta ga
nai)
COPYRIGHT¶
This program was originally created while I was a student at the University of
California. However, this program was developed entirely by myself, on my own
computer, not related to any classwork. I retain sole right to this program.
I, Philip Brown, hereby give permission to use, and/or modify this code, so long
as it it not sold for profit, and I am given credit somewhere in the code.
Unrelated works originally derived from this code are not covered by this
restriction (although it would be nice to mention me!)
NOTICE¶
Send donations, postcards, muffins, letters of commendation, to
Philip Brown
5353 Josie Ave
Lakewood, CA 90713
USA
[ I HAVE received some nice email, and more is always welcome. No postcards,
though. Sniff... Although I DID actually receive a small donation.
Yaaay! I can buy more manga now! :-> ]
Bug reports always "welcome". However, please ensure that you can
reproduce it, so I can fix it for you. Also, be sure to let me know your
machine type, and version of kdrill you are using.
Philip Brown
phil@bolthole.com
http://www.bolthole.com/
http://www.bolthole.com/kdrill/
SEE ALSO:
ftp://ftp.bolthole.com/kdrill/zidian.README for information on how to use kdrill
for Chinese learning