MAN page from RedHat Other kdrill-5.5.3-1.i386.rpm

KDRILL

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: January 21th, 1998
Index

NAME

kdrill v5.5.3 - 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 inhaving proper documentation. Hopefully, this new format will help insteadof hinder.

At some future point in time, I shall convert this huge beast to HTML. Butthat point is not now.[Although actually, you CAN go to http://www.bolthole.com/kdrill]

REMEMBER: "/WORD" usually takes you to the next occurrence of "WORD",using a "man"-like program.

SECTIONS (of this man page)

RUNTIME OPTIONS
RESOURCES
DESCRIPTION
PLAYING
PLAYING OPTIONS
SEARCH
KEYBOARD ACCELERATORS
USEFILES
CONFIGURATION DETAILS
LOGFILES AND MISSED KANJI
KANJIDIC

RUNTIME 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.
-guessmeaning: Start with one meaning and five kanji to guess from.
-showinorder: Start in ordered mode. Go through desired kanji in order of #.
-gradelevel <level #s>: Start with different grade levels enabled. [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, andthereby enable switching from kana to english without changing the quizkanji. Using this option will make kdrill move to another kanji if youswitch kana to English or vica versa.
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RESOURCES

All the above options can be set in a resource file, with the same namesas the flags. Additional resources, like fonts, and window placement, canalso be set. See the sample "KDrill" file for more detail, which isoften installed in /usr/lib/X11/app-defaults. You do not have to be able to change that file. You can usually put yourown customizations in a file called "~/.Xresources".

Colors

You may change the background of the windows using a resource file,as mentioned above.

DESCRIPTION

kdrillis a program to drill users on meanings of kanji characters. Variousformats 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 whichone matches the kanji at the top.

Any grade level or frequency rating the current kanji has will bedisplayed 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-choiceanswered to see how well you know the lone kanji or meaning. You mayalso 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 youguess incorrectly, you will have to guess again. Furthermore, kdrill willmake a note that you didn't know either the character displayed, or thecharacter for the incorrect meaning you clicked on.

If you are playing in random order, kdrill will randomly repeat the onesyou have missed. You will have to get a missed character right twice forkdrill to think you know it. If you miss a character more than once, youwill have to repeat the character two times the number of times youmissed it. If you are playing in order, kdrill will keep to theorder, 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, anddon'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 wayis to make a guess with button 2 on your mouse. The characterof the one you clicked on will appear in the search window.If the search window was not already open, it will appear when you dothis.

PLAYING OPTIONS

If you want to change the way the game works while playing, you can bringup the options window by pressing the options button. If you know how youwant the game to play before starting it, you can most likely do what youwant with a command-line option, described at the top of thisman-page. If you want to permanently change an option, see the"RESOURCES" header, above.

Grades

You may specify which grade levels you wish to study, by clicking on thebuttons labeled: "1", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "+", or "All", in the"Grade Select" window. You may also select/unselect a grade by holdingdown shift, followed by "1", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "+", or "a", in themain 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, somekanji are used more frequently than others. Frequency rating 1 means thatthis is the most frequently used character. The frequency of the true answer you are guessing will be displayed inthe top right of the main window, next to the "F:" sign, if a frequencyrating exists.

The frequency range area in the options window allows you to limit thekanji you see based on their frequency rating. The frequency range areaconsists of two smaller input areas; "High", and "Low". Highmeans a kanji that is high frequency. That is to say, something that isused often. According to the definitions of the dictionary, "1" means thekanji that is used the most often. A frequency rating of "2" meansthat the character has a lower frequency than "1". The mostfrequently 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 nokanji that is of higher frequency than that number. Similarly, setting anumber in the "Low" window means that you will see no kanji of frequencylower than that number. 2000 is a "Low" frequency kanji. If you put 2000in the "Low" area, you would see nothing of lower frequency than thecharacter 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. Ifyou try to set either window to "0", it will automatically set itselfblank 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 orfrequency 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 meansin the order represented by the dictionary, denoted by the '#' numbershown at top right. This happens to be the JIS-encoding of the Kanji,which we also call the kanji index.

SEARCH

It is now possible to search for a character in kdrill. You may search foran English phrase, a kana phrase, or a particular kanji.

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 thewindow, and press return or enter. The window will then display the firstkanji it finds that has that word in its definition, along with itsindex number, grade, and other information available, if any.

If you press return again, kdrill will look for the next character thathas the word in its definition. Eventually, it will loop back to thefirst one it found. If no matches are found, all fields will be blank.

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 temptingkana window. There is no little ^ cursor, but dont worry about that.DO worry about the following conventions:

  Type "n " (n,space) for a trailing n.
  Press "-" for small-tsu. (type "chotto" as "cho-to")
  Press backspace to erase the last char.
  Press return to start the search, or continue it.

For a pointy-clicky method of input, press the "kana search"button. This will pop up the kana seach window. (Press it again to removethe window.) Press the kana(s) you want to search for. The chars you press will be shownnext to the "kana search" button in the main search window. When you havethe phrase ready, press the Paragraph key (backwards "P").

If your kana recognition isn't all it should be, you can toggle romaji modein the options popup (via "options" from the main window). Additionally, ifyou don't know katakana, but want to translate a katakana phrase, use the<=> button to toggle between hiragana and katakana. Note that even if youare in katakana input mode, it will print out your buttonpresses ashiragana. This is because the search engine treats hiragana and katakanaidentically.

If you make a mistake, press the <- button to erase the last char.

The characters you press will appear at the bottom of the popup, and also onthe main search window next to the kana search button. As noted above, ifyou make a mistake typing, use the <- button on the kana window to erase, orthe backspace key.Pressing the paragraph key on the kana popup, or <return> on the outputwindow, will go to the next kana phrase match, if one exists.

Kanji search

If you want to find a kanji by shape, press the kanji search button onthe 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 recommendthat you read the description that comes in the kanjidic document file. Itis impossible for me to cover all details here.

In brief, you have to press each corner of the center box, and select one ofthe ten elements from the top row, that best matches that corner of thekanji you want to look up. For those already familiar with the4-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, itsounds easy, but it is really horribly difficult, and I again refer you tothe documentation that comes with kanjidic.

Kanji cut-n-paste lookup

For ELECTRONIC lookup... if you view Japanese text online with a programlike "kterm", you can now select a single kanji in kterm, and paste it intoa special "drop target" in the search window. It is to the far right of the"kanji" search button.

Note: kdrill will only look at the FIRST char, if you highlight multiplechars.

What are all those letters?

The top row; "G, F, #", all refer to the basic indexes that are shown inthe 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 itstand out as the only one that expects input in Hexadecimal. This isbecause 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 amatch for what you just entered. If it can find no match, it will blankout 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 thesearch (limits by usefile, grade, or frequency limit).

The search window ignores any restrictions on the main window, andsearches 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)hear
  e                          Toggle (E)nglish/kana
  k                          Guess which (K)anji fits
  l                          Make a (l)og of errors
  m                          Guess which (m)eaning fits
  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

Additionally, the Sun keyboard "Find" (F19) and "Props" (F13) keysare bound to the search and options windows, respectively.

CONFIGURATION DETAILS

kdrill checks for a file by the name of.kanjiusefilein the current directory, although this name can be changed either withthe '-usefile' option, or in a resource file.

kdrill also checks for a logfile, namedkdrill.logby 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 sourcepackage) to interpret many of the various 16-bit kanji chars in thekanji24font supplied with the X11R5 distribution. This file should be in a placeaccessible to all users. Normally it would be in /usr/local/lib orsomewhere similar.

kanjidicsubdivides its entries into grade levels, and frequency ratings. Gradelevels are similar to school grade levels, but more compressed. Forkdrill's purposes, grade levels start at 1, and increase to 6. There aremany kanji that do not have a grade level, due to their infrequency ofuse, or other reasons. These are denoted by the "+" character in thegrade select window.

The user can restrict the range of kanji to drill on in different, yetcompatible, ways. The first way is to make a ".kanjiusefile" with a an explicit list of desired kanji. (described below 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 thecurrent drill-question (or press the english/kana toggle button).

Keep in mind that the xfd font tool and other applications may refer tokanji characters by a hexadecimal number. You may enter ahexadecimal 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 logfilealso stores kanji in hexadecimal format. This makes it easy to use a logfile of kanji you have missed as a usefile, for repeated drilling.

USEFILES

A usefile consists of a list of hex numbers; one per line, no initialspaces allowed. A usefile lets the program know you are interested incertain kanji, over the thousands listed in the dictionary.

It is possible to add comment lines by having the very first characterof a line be "#". It is also possible to add english reminders after thenumber on each line, so you remember what each number is. Hex numberscan 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 mayhave range restrictions on it.

Grade and Frequency restrictions will apply, even if you have ausefile. Thus, if all your usefile-defined kanji are of grade 4 orhigher, and you have only selected grades 3 and lower, kdrill willcomplain that there are not enough kanji available, and attempt toadd viewable grade levels.

If you wish kdrill to ignore your usefile at first, you may use the-nousefile option. You can also change whether the program uses your usefileinteractively while the program is running, by toggling the "No Usefile"button on the options window.

LOGFILES AND MISSED KANJI

Every time you guess incorrectly, kdrill makes a note. It later will giveyou extra practice on ones you missed, if you are playing in random order.It will repeat a character until you get it right a certain numberof times. kdrill will then think you "know" that character (until youmiss it again!)

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 youdo not know into the logfile. This will erase any information previouslyin that logfile. The next time you start up kdrill, it will automaticallyread in the standardlogfile, if it exists.

The logfile is named "kdrill.log", by default. You may change the nameof 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 nexttime you play. It will then go back to those characters from time totime, if you play in "random" order. If you do not press "Log", kdrillwill not save a record of what you have missed.

Alternatively, you can use the logfile as a usefile. kdrill will thenonly quiz you on those kanji you missed. If you choose to do this, it isa good idea to copy the log file over to a different file. That way, youcan make a logfile for your new usefile. For example, in UNIX;

cp kdrill.log kdrill.usefilekdrill -usefile kdrill.usefile

KANJIDIC

The dictionary for kdrill, kanjidic, is currently available where itoriginated, via ftp fromftp.monash.edu.au,or from a mirror in the U.S. at ftp.uwtc.washington.edu. Likewise for the"edict" dictionary.

At the monash site, both the dictionary and this program can currently befound in/pub/nihongo

This program's primary ftp site is now ftp.bolthole.com. However, if thatlocation is unreachable, you can always find the latest version atftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/games/kdrill.

There is also an official kdrill URL;

http://www.bolthole.com/kdrill-info.html

This currently shows you some screen-shots, and mentions the ftp sites.

BUGS

"kanjidic" isn't perfect. There are "incomplete" entries, missing eitherEnglish or kana translations. There are also entries consisting of "SeeNxxxx", which isn't really an improvement. Note that you cannow 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 does not speak Japanese or Chinese, but has finally started Japanese
lessons!)

COPYRIGHT

This program was originally created while I was a student at theUniversity of California. However, this program was developed entirely bymyself, on my own computer, not related to any classwork. I retain soleright to this program.

I, Philip Brown, hereby give permission to use, and/or modify this code, solong as it it not sold for profit, and I am given credit somewhere inthe code. Unrelated works originally derived from this code are notcovered by this restriction (although it would be nice to mention me!)

NOTICE

Send donations, postcards, muffins, letters of commendation, to

:   Philip Brown
  199 Devon Drive
  San Rafael, CA 94903
  USA

[ I HAVE received some nice email, and more is always welcome ]

Bug reports always "welcome". However, please ensure that you canreproduce it, so I can fix it for you.Also, be sure to let me know your machine type, and version of kdrill youare using.

I hope that this latest version will impress someone enough to actuallysend me something tangible in appreciation of this program. As far as Iknow, nothing else like it exists for UNIX or the X window system.I shall try to resist the temptation to make this a commercial program foras long as possible.

Philip BrownJanuary 18th, 1998
philAATTbolthole.com

(now my permanent address)

http://www.bolthole.com

http://www.bolthole.com/kdrill

Index

NAME
SECTIONS (of this man page)
RUNTIME OPTIONS
RESOURCES
Colors
DESCRIPTION
PLAYING
PLAYING OPTIONS
SEARCH
KEYBOARD ACCELERATORS
CONFIGURATION DETAILS
USEFILES
LOGFILES AND MISSED KANJI
KANJIDIC
BUGS
AUTHOR
COPYRIGHT
NOTICE

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