Programming Help: Japanese Language learning

[Steve Basnof]

Howdy.

So I've been studying Japanese for three years and there's getting to be a lot of vocabulary that we're being taught, and a lot of it that I'm forgetting because I'm just not using it.

I was wanting to compile all the vocab/kanji I've learned and compile it in an spreadsheet, then make a simple program to choose random words and quiz me on them. (Jaruden had a little browser based quiz that he put up on the old boxtorrents site a while ago that he used to quiz himself on hiragana.)

I don't know how to program things but I would like to maybe know what kind of programming I should learn that will make it easy for me to make something like this. It really doesn't need to be fancy, it just needs to be able to do sort of what Jaruden's quiz thing did, display a Japanese word and then quiz me on either it's reading or it's English definition.

Anyone know what would be best for this?

Thanks.

[relic2279]

Someone has already done it for you.

http://www.readthekanji.com/

I know it might not be exactly what you want, but it's an amazing little program.  And free.

[Steve Basnof]

Thanks!

That's really helpful. But I would like to make a program of my own though to keep track of words that I have explicitly learned and be able to review it. (That website won't know what I have actually learned and what I haven't yet)

Basically I'd like to program something myself so I'd have the freedom to choose how I want it to display things. (I might want it to display the english definition and have me choose the Japanese word, or various other things like radicals.) Would anyone be able to tell me even what kind of code to learn or if it can be done with some kind of web based programming?

[ant900]

C# using winforms seems like a good way to accomplish what you want.

[Steve Basnof]

Thanks! I'll check that out

[bcr123]

If you have a copy of access it's pretty easy to get started with building simple forms based applications that way and since it's built on a database it's easy to put your vocab lists into tables for easy maintenance.   I actually built one for myself that not only displays the text but if you don't get the answer right away plays the sound/word/phrase and finally gives you the answer for hiragana then it also has a picture quiz for reviewing words/phrases that can be represented with images.    It's in Access 2000 format and has enough data to demonstrate how it's entered but not a whole lot.

[ilk3000]

Learn PHP and store the data in arrays or tables. It's easier than trying to use Access, you can easily build an html display, and if you use MySQL for the tables, you can even make an editing interface to add, modify, or remove entries.

[BuriaL]

What books would be good to learn C++ for a beginner?
Might as well make a list of books from beginner to advanced.

I allready checked out http://www.cprogramming.com/books.html
Reason iam asking you guys is that youre not biased becouse you sell books.

[ant900]

If you are just starting off the C++ Primer Plus 5th Edition is an excellent book for beginners, but it only covers programming in a console window.

Out of the books in the link you provided I have read the Effective C++ and More Effective C++.  They are both great books for better programming practices, but they are more for those who already know what they are doing.  The C++ Programming Language is probably a good book because Bjarne wrote it, but I don't know what level it is on.

*looks through collection for more books*

Well after looking through all of my books that I could find I surprisingly didn't find any that teaches an Object-Oriented Programming mindset.  However I did find Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software written by the Gang of Four.  It is an excellent book describing many design patterns commonly used in programming.  There is also Head First Design Patterns which is a bit more user friendly than the book by the Gang of Four.

Beyond those you will probably want to find a Object-Oriented Programming book so you can know how to properly program in c++ and a book on windows/Linux/OSX programing (depending on which os you are using) so you know how to set up and use a window instead of a text only console window (or you can just search the internet).

[bcr123]

Learn PHP and store the data in arrays or tables. It's easier than trying to use Access, you can easily build an html display, and if you use MySQL for the tables, you can even make an editing interface to add, modify, or remove entries.

You think it's easier to have someone become a server/database adminstrator before they start with any programming?

It's a lot easier for a novice to learn some basics in access than to force them to setup and administer a LAMP (or equivalent) server before they even get to the programming part of it. Vbasic can get people into OOP without them even realizing it then you can explain how the things they've been doing in access translate to full scratch-built applications.

[ilk3000]

Learn PHP and store the data in arrays or tables. It's easier than trying to use Access, you can easily build an html display, and if you use MySQL for the tables, you can even make an editing interface to add, modify, or remove entries.

You think it's easier to have someone become a server/database adminstrator before they start with any programming?

It's a lot easier for a novice to learn some basics in access than to force them to setup and administer a LAMP (or equivalent) server before they even get to the programming part of it. Vbasic can get people into OOP without them even realizing it then you can explain how the things they've been doing in access translate to full scratch-built applications.

You can get a VPS for cheap and never go deeper than setting up a MySQL database in cPanel with a few clicks and an FTP account. If something goes wrong, the hosting company can fix it.

[CrystalKaeru]

So I've been studying Japanese for three years and there's getting to be a lot of vocabulary that we're being taught, and a lot of it that I'm forgetting because I'm just not using it.

I was wanting to compile all the vocab/kanji I've learned [...]

It really doesn't need to be fancy, it just needs to be able to do sort of what Jaruden's quiz thing did, display a Japanese word and then quiz me on either it's reading or it's English definition.

Sounds like Anki is what you are looking for.

[dankles]

...

Sounds like Anki is what you are looking for.

YES!!! USE ANKI!!!! Its really great!

EDIT:
Also, if you know any python, I'm making my own japanese learning software Only got like 500 lines written so far though

[kostya]

Well after looking through all of my books that I could find I surprisingly didn't find any that teaches an Object-Oriented Programming mindset.  However I did find Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software written by the Gang of Four.  It is an excellent book describing many design patterns commonly used in programming.  There is also Head First Design Patterns which is a bit more user friendly than the book by the Gang of Four.

Both of those are design patterns more than OOP. As a good book on the topic of Object-Oriented software development, I would recommend Head First Object-Oriented Analysis and Design by an awesome guy named Gary Police. The book will make you laugh, will make you cry (at their bad examples of code), and it will even teach you how many strings there are on a mandolin.

Having said that, I do not think that any of the books would be appropriate for someone who is just starting to learn C++ since all the books assume that the user knows how to program in an Object Oriented Language and the Head First books have all the examples in Java.

[ant900]

Both of those are design patterns more than OOP.

which is why I said I couldn't find one

Having said that, I do not think that any of the books would be appropriate for someone who is just starting to learn C++ since all the books assume that the user knows how to program in an Object Oriented Language and the Head First books have all the examples in Java.

the C++ Primer is an excellent beginner book, idk why you would say it isn't.  It is how I learned C++