bumble.sf.net language and parsing

plain text

A java application for language training

tutor directory

this directory contains an attempt to write a language tutor program in the java language.

This directory now contains and updated version of the language tutor. The new version is based on the old classes but has been debugged and the functionality enhanced.

The class Transcription is not being used in the current version. The functionality of the Transcription class is handled by the Translation class.

march 2009

A new version of the tutor program has been completed. At the moment it is still a console application, as opposed to a gui interface. A swing interface has been started ( Tutor.java ) hampered by my lack of knowledge of swing layouts.

Another drawback is that the playing of mp3 files is not yet supported.

running and compiling

The application can be run by downloading PracticeLoop.jar file and running it from the command line with the command

 java -jar PracticeLoop.jar data.txt

The file data.txt is a plain text file which contains information about the language sound files and the translations and transcriptions of those files, as well as indicating the language of the sound files and the folder location of the files.

The application can be compiled by downloading all the java files into a directory called "tutor" and then running the following command from the parent directory of "tutor"

 javac tutor/PracticeLoop.java

Then the newly compiled application can be run from the same directory with the command

 java tutor.PracticeLoop

The application was compiled with java 1.6 but should be compilable and runnable with java 1.2 or more recent.

the data file

The application is designed to run with a plain text data file in the format

  * file-name.ext
  -xx transcription
  -yy translation to language yy
  -zz translation to language zz
  -;

  etc
 
The xx and yy are 2 or 3 letter language codes which are officially defined and controled in some "Request for comments" [->wikipedia] or another.

This format was designed on the basis that it would be easy to type, and that I would not have to use and "XML" [->wikipedia] editor in order to create the data files.

The format used for the java application in this folder is almost identical to the format for the shell scripts listen-loop.bat in other nearby folders, but is not the same.