7 Comments Add your own

• 1. Josh  |  January 16th, 2006 at 8:01 pm

  I downloaded zdt on Friday night, and I have to say that the newest version is one of the best pieces of software I have had the pleasure of using. I am also studying from ChinesePod.com, and it helps to be able to put the vocabulary together from lesson to lesson, and then drill with the flashcard program to keep the meanings and pinyin in my mind.

  One request… how difficult would it be to write a plugin that would speak out the words given the pinyin? I have seen a site or two with downloads of all of the sounds (each with each tone combination)… something like that might help with studying and drilling as well.

  Either way, awesome piece of software! Keep up the good work.

• 2. Chris  |  January 16th, 2006 at 9:43 pm

  Thanks for the kind words Josh.

  What sites have you seen with downloads of all the sounds? David Lancashire of Adso fame recently put out a free for non commercial use distribution of pinyin sounds. It clocked in at about 90 MB though (all wav files). There were problems with some of the files though, so hopefully David will get back to me when he resolves those issues.

  That said, I did some experimentation and I was able to get them to play ok. Although, having it read off a couple of short phrases didn’t really sound as “natural” I hoped it could be, it still has a lot of potential. I’m definately looking at creating some sort of sound plugin for the zdt. Probably not for the next version, but I’ll probably seriously look into it for the version afterwards.

• 3. Josh  |  January 17th, 2006 at 5:30 am

  The sounds I was referring to were found here: http://www.chinawestexchange.com/download.htm

  They may be the same as the ones you are using. Either way, might be an interesting addon. Truth be told, it might be nicer if there were a pause for each sound (I assume this is the “not sounding natural” part) so that you could hear the proper pronunciation. One problem I have listening to ChinesePod is discerning what Jenny is saying sometimes… the sounds all end up sounding alike. I guess this is something I will learn to discern in time.

  Every little bit helps I suppose. That said, I have added your development blog here, and will keep tabs on what happens. I’ve also recommended your software directly to two friends who are also interested in learning, so I hope you get a few more downloads out of me.

  As I said before, keep up the stellar work!

• 4. Josh  |  January 17th, 2006 at 4:26 pm

  Another feature request that occured to me… I have created a list of basic words that I am drilling with. When I do a flashcards stack, definition test; would it be possible to have a setting that tells it to only pull possible answers from that list of words? For example, if I am being quizzed on nihao, its a dead giveaway that its “hello” when your other choices are “stumble”, “windlass”, or “economic reform”.

  Thanks!

• 5. Chris  |  January 17th, 2006 at 4:54 pm

  Pretty cool link. This is actually different from the one I was talking about. This one is in mp3 format and thus smaller. Only problem is that they are not complete (ie. no an2 or an3). Also they don’t include sounds for the neutral tone. Still I’ve sent off an email to the webmaster and perhaps we can come to the agreement on the licensing issues. Even it doesn’t work out, it will definately be useful for testing.

  Regarding #4, this feature has already been requested and will be in the next release. Should it just be a preference or should I make it the default behavior. Opinons?

• 6. Josh  |  January 17th, 2006 at 5:20 pm

  A preference is a good thing, seeing as that there are not many right now. Not sure if you’ve ever used KDE, but the amount of preferences there are staggering…. it if were at that point, I’d feel differently.

  Also, if you need some help testing, let me know. I’ve got a little bit of experience there and might be able to help. Feel free to e-mail me!

• 7. Chris  |  January 17th, 2006 at 6:31 pm

  Thanks Josh. I’ll definately enlist your help when the time comes closer to a release. Also feel free to submit feature requests or bug reports to the sourceforge site. It helps me keep track of things more easily.

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