Copyright: Arnold Willemer


Inhalt
VocaBox

A software to learn words of foreign languages.

Contents

Program

Mainscreen

Menu

Technical details

Copyright / Shareware


Programm
Program

This software is made to help you learn the words of a foreign language. It is made the way you can learn very efficient with cards in box. The cards are organized a way that words you already know will be asked not that often again.

The box is devided in partitions. The first partition can hold 10 cards. The second can hold 20, the third 40, the fifth 80 and so on. When you learn and want to see the question the program will show you the word from the first partition that is overfilled. If no partition is overcrowded VocaBox will choose the first partition with cards in it. If you know the answer, the card will be put into the next partition. If you don't know the answer the card will be done into the input stack or the first partition at the last place.

All new words will be put into the input stack. Everytime the first partition is empty it is filled up with max. 10 cards from the input stack.

The last partition is the tray. The cards stay here until the thray will be deleted.

To handle the input and import, there is a special partition: the input stack. This will hold all new cards. Only if the first partition is empty it will fill it up with max. 10 new cards.


Hauptbildschirm
Mainscreen

There are two gray boxes in the main screen. The upper holds the question. The lower will hold the answer as soon as you push the „LOOK„-button.

You have to decide youself, if you knew the answer. You can easily fool the program but you will fool yourself. Remember: YOU want to learn all those words. So press the button „Unknown„ or „Known„

To be faster than with the mouse you can use the RETURN-key to look and to say that the word is known. The ESC-key can be used to mark the card as unknown. In this way you can train very fast and eaven in some minutes you can learn a lot of words.

The number between the „Unknown„ and „Known„-button is the partition the actual card is in. In the statusline you can see informations, how many cards are in this partitions and how many are in the box. To the right you can see for the actual word how often you pressed known and unknown.


Menüs
Menu

The menu contains the popups File, Vocabulary, Partition, Options and Help. File is used to load and save your work to disk and to leave the program. Card works with a single card. You can insert new oder correct cards. You can mix delete and correct the contents of Partitions. You can switch the behaviour of the program by choosing Options.

File

Card

Partition

Options


Datei-Menü
File

The Filemenu holds the contact to your harddisk. As long as you didn't save all your work will be lost after leaving the program. The changes you made is filling in or deleting of cards. But also your success in learning is stored in main memory and will be lost if not saved to disk.

New

This command will erase all your data in memory. This is what you use, when you want to start from scratch.

Open /

Using File / Open you read a file into memory. You can hold different files on disks. Maybe one for spanish and one for french. Or you want to save the words of each lesson seperated. When you open a file the box will be erased as if you used File / New.

Save

If you use File / Save all changes will be stored in the file in use. You don't have to tell the program what file this is, so it works easy and fast. Only if you started the program empty and didn't open or save till yet the program will react as you selected File / Save As.

Save As

Here you give a new name to your work. It must be used when it is the first time after the program start that you want to save your work. If your work has a file on disk with this command it can be easily duplicated.

Import / Export

You can export your cards to a plain text file. The software will use a line for each card. Questions will be shown first then a semicolon followed by the answer.

This text can be imported by a text-processor to print vocabulary lists. You can even use spread-sheets or databases to manage your cards.

You can also import text that is formed this way. Be careful that it is plain ASCII-text and not the format of your text processor.

Imported data will always be inserted in the first partition. If a word in an import file already exists, it will not be inserted.

Exit

Here you can leave the program. It is always wise to leave this (and other) program this way.


Vokabelmenü
Card Menu

The card menu offers you access to your cards. You can build new ones and can edit or delete the current one.

New

Here you can enter new words. You will get the input dialog to insert a new card.

Change

You get the same dialog as for the new card but filled with the current card on the screen. You can edit it and save it. The options are the same as with a new input.

Delete

If you don't like the card you see, you can delete it this way.


Input dialog

This dialog is used to insert new words or to correct existing cards.

Surprisingly the dialog box won't close when you press RETURN. The reason is that you usually will want to enter more than one card. So the dialog will stay untill you press ESC.

If you enter a word that is already in the box, the program show you a dialog the existent card. You can now force the new card to be added or you can edit the old one.

If either the answer or the question is empty the program will deny the input.

Many foreign languages have funny letters the normal keyboard doesn't offer. Working with Windows 95 od NT you have the possibility to install a foreign keyboard. VocaBox offers a second way. You can enter national special characters by prefixing a \. The following table shows an overview to the letters you can reach this way.

\,C	Ç	\"u	ü	\´e	é

\^a	â	\"a	ä	\`a	à

\°a	å	\,c	ç	\^e	ê

\"e	ë	\`e	è	\"i	ï

\^i	î	\`i	ì	\"A	Ä

\°A	Å	\´E	É	\ae	æ

\AE	Æ	\^o	ô	\"o	ö

\`o	ò	\^u	û	\`u	ù

\"y	\"O	Ö	\"U	Ü

\/o	ø	\L	£	\/O	Ø

\´a	á	\´i	í	\´o	ó

\´u	ú	\~n	ñ	\~N	Ñ

\?	¿	\´A	Á	\°A	Â

\`A	À	\|c	¢	\=Y	¥

\~a	ã	\~A	Ã	\-d	ð

\-D	Ð	\^E	Ê	\"E	Ë

\`E	È	\´I	Í	\^I	Î

\"I	Ï	\`I	Ì	\´O	Ó

\"s	ß	\^O	Ô	\`O	Ò

\~o	õ	\~O	Õ	\´U	Ú

\^U	Û	\`U	Ù	\´y	ý

\´Y	Ý


Double Words

This dialog you will see if the question or the answer is already in your box. You habe the opportunity to press OK. Then the words will be taken anyway. The program won't get a problem with doubles. Using CANCEL you will drop your new input. If you want to see and perhaps change the old words you use the button CHANGE.

In the last case you will get again a further input dialog. But this time you will get the doublette in your box.


Fachmenue
Partition Menu

When you want to access the partitions you are right here.

All to input stack

If you want to start learning all over you can order all cards to the input stack.

Change

Here you can move cards from one partition to another. In the upper right corner you will find a combobox to select the partition you want to work on. You can see how many cards are in the partition. In the big listbox you will find the questions of all cards in that partition. You can select one or more cards and push the button titled „To another„. You will see a new dialog where you can select the target-partition. Instead you can also delete all selected cards by using the button Delete.

You can also correct a card by double-clicking it or using the Correct-button. If you selected more than one card you will get the first only.

Delete Last

This is the way you delete the last tray. Normally you will find there those words you know very good. To be shure, you should look at them by using the partition-change-dialog.

Mix this

This command mixes the cards of one partition. All other partitions are not touched.

Mix all

Now you mix every partition in the box. But no card will change it's partition.


Optionenmenü
Options Menu

Switch Answer + Question

Here you can ask the answer and find the question. It's sometimes helpful learning the other way around. Try it!

Unknown to input stack

With Version 1.4 you can decide, if the unknown words shall come to the input stack or in the first partition. If the words come from the input stack there are allways 10 new at a time and they are trained until you know them before you get 10 new cards in the first partition.

Empty Partitions to the end

Normally after some learning the first partitions can become empty. This can be annoying. If you use this option, all partitions will be moved to fill an empty partition. So there will be less cards that will reach the last partition.


Technical Detaills

The program stores it's data in files that are compatible to the dBase standard. Only the extension is vok instead of dbf.

Because earlier versions of this software needed a second file extended kas the program will create it by writing.

The vok file has the structure:

DEUTSCH

UEBERSETZT

KASTEN

ALTER

GEWUSST

UNBEKANNT

DEUTSCH contains the question and UEBERSETZT the answer. In  KASTEN there is stored which partition the card is in, starting with a capital A. The last partition is marked as Z. ALTER is a numeric field that was needed by versions till 1.2. The count of „known„-buttons for the card ist stored in the field GEWUSST and the count of „unknown„ you will find in UNBEKANNT.


dBase is a Trademark of Borland.


Copyright

VocaBox V. 1.4 1999

All rights reserved

(C) Arnold Willemer 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999 Norgaardholz 7

D-24972 Steinberg, Germany

I have to thank Jürgen Mielke for the idea and testing the software again and again. Also Mark Mitzkus has helped me by ideas and testing.

SHAREWARE

You won't believe it: it is a lot of work to write a program like this. So I think it is a good idea, that the one who uses it should give me a little money for it. In the U.S.A. the kagi will do the licencing.

The software costs 15 US $ for one licence,

You can also get a site licence for 300 US $ and a world wide licence for 2000 US $.

Please contact me at

AWillemer@kagi.com

Copying

You are allowed to copy this software and pass it on per mailbox, internet, CD-ROMs or any medium you like as long as you copy it complete.

Homepage

This software has it's homepage at

http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/java/570/vocabox.htm

Here you will find the actual version of the software. This software is also available in a german version. There is a version for OS/2, Windows 3.x and Macintosh in german. If you are interested in an english version, ask for it.

This software is written in C++ by using the OWL. The dBase-file accesses are made by a class written by A. Willemer: