[kde-edu]: MobVoc - Mobile Vocabulary Trainer, v0.0.1 released

[Michael Hofer]

Hello list!

I finally released the first version of the announced vocabulary trainer
for mobile phones (MobVoc) which loads KVTML2 files produced by Parley.
It can be downloaded in the "Download" area from
http://sourceforge.net/projects/mobvoc/ .

Please try it out and tell me what you think about it, or if you
experience any problems. You can post your comments on the projects web
forums on http://sourceforge.net/forum/?group_id=213709 .

Below you will find the release notes. Thanks for your attention.

servus,
Michael

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Release Notes - MobVoc Mobile Vocabulary Trainer
=================================================

Version 0.0.1, 2008-01-25
-------------------------------------------------------------------

This is the first public MobVoc release. It is to be considered alpha
quality software. It was tested successfully on phones from Nokia
and Sony Ericsson. If you are experiencing problems, please post
on the forums at http://sourceforge.net/projects/mobvoc/ .

Current Features:
-----------------

- Loading of KVTML2 files (as produced by the current release version
of Parley)

- "Learn Words" mode: Select from- and to-language; Display Entry in
first language and after user interaction in second language (including
word types and pronounciation)

- "Learn Conjugations" mode: Select from- and to-language; Display Entry
in both languages and after user interaction show all conjugation forms
for second ("to") language. 

- Entries can be marked as "known". Known entries aren't displayed again
until the vocabulary file is unloaded/reloaded (not saved permanently).
This works only in the "Learn Words" mode at the moment.

- Individual lessons can be selected/unselected for learning.


Limitations/Bugs
-----------------

- The maximum size (and the loading time) of KVTML files depends heavily
on your mobile phone (maximum should be between 200 and several thousand
entries for a current mobile phone). The application isn't optimized for
memory usage at the moment and does far too much object
creation/deletion.
Expect huge improvements in load time and memory consumption for future
versions.

Approximate times for loading a kvtml file with 290 entries in two
languages (with 20 of them having conjugations defined) from the phones
local filesystem:

- Sony Ericsson K610i: ~ 1 second
- Sony Ericsson W800i: ~ 10 seconds
- Nokia 6060: ~ 13 minutes (but only 3 minutes when loading the same
file per HTTP; don't know why)


- Phonetic script (IPA) characters are not displayed correctly (on some
phones?)

- The user interface and organization of command buttons needs some
work. Since this is highly device dependent please report UI problems
on the forums at http://sourceforge.net/projects/mobvoc/

- Last used file/dir/url is only saved permanently if you exit with the
regular exit command from the program (and not if the exit is forced by
some mobile phone function).

- Code needs cleanups and better documentation (javadoc...)