KDEEdu/Parley/Todo

Parley Practice Rewrite for KDE 4.5

Work on the parley practice happens in a branch here: Browse WebSVN online

Check it out: svn co svn://anonsvn.kde.org/home/kde/branches/work/parley-practice/

General

• DONE: remove old practice code F
• TODO: does Paraphrase make any sense at all? no - remove paraphrase - it is not used in any single document we could find
• TODO: remove Antonym completely
• DISCUSS: timeouts during practice ???

Synonyms

• TODO: get rid of current way of handling them in the lib? BIC!!!???!!!
• TODO: use a stringlist instead
• TODO: make it possible to edit them in the table - how to separate two of them? semicolon?
• TODO: change/rewrite dock widget
• DISCUSS: practice options (is this really really needed?):
• DONE: Check synonyms as part of written practice (BEN_SCHL)
  • DONE: accept any synonym as correct (BEN_SCHL)
  • DONE: ask to enter all synonyms (BEN_SCHL)
  • DONE: show already entered synonyms in list (BEN_SCHL)
  • DONE: ask until the exact word that is wanted is there, but don't count other synonyms as wrong on the way there (BEN_SCHL)
  • DONE: Check user options if he really wanted synonyms to be counted as correct by now we always accept them as correct (BEN_SCHL)
  • Let other modes benefit from synonyms. Maybe similar to the hint button show a synonym if it exist?
  • DONE: If in written mode a synonym was entered, check if that synonym is in this practice mode and increase its good count ? (BEN_SCHL)

LaTeX support

• TODO: integrate LaTeX in written and flash card practice modes
• TODO: poslish and test
• TODO add documentation to manual
• do nothing on empty string
• limit max size of widget

Themes

• TODO: implement rendering of scaled and cropped background
• DONE dani_l: border-foo-repeat (stuff like fluffy bunny doesn't work that well if scaled...)
• TODO: make it possible for the boxes widget to be scaled (and change the layout so that it can get more space)

Configure Practice

• TODO: threshold: word types are broken here?

Notes Advanced page:

• TODO: Time limits: only let the user select if the time limit is active, use show solution after answering
• TODO: enable button xyz: not applicable any more, only the hint button, so remove them from the ui file
• TODO: rearrange the widgets in the advanced page

• IDEA/TODO: maybe it would make sense to put the most common options into the statistics page that is shown before practice is started
  • maybe replace the checkboxes again with radio buttons -> it's so easy to change now
  • only show one bar of grades - the one that corresponds to the current language selection

• TODO: add grammar grade visualisation

Completely Missing

Still missing are:

• TODO: Vocabulary test (school like) with good summary and "grade"
  • no button for hints
  • add buttons to "go back and forth"
  • don't show if the answer was right
  • DISCUSS: do we want to have some type of "grade" and if yes, how should it be calculated?

Comparison Forms

You know? Adjectives and adverbs - words that describe other words.

• green/red for right answers make right answers disabled so they can't be screwed up again
• URGENT show solution if wrong
• URGENT do not randomly skip words when answer was wrong

Flash Card

• focus on continue button is not set when showing the first card, from then on it works
  • I don't understand why it doesn't work after having a quick look (Frederik)
• TODO - EASY: add sound and pronunciation, same as in written mode, only needs code in flashcardmodewidget.cpp to be changed

Multiple Choice

• DONE dani_l: hotkeys (maybe in menu? even configurable??) for the choices: 1 for first, 2 for second...
  • TODO - KDE 4.6: use kactions and make sure they are configurable

• TODO - KDE 4.6: it would be nice to get rid of the radio buttons in favor of having something else maybe - a list? something that looks nicer

• Adding sound pronunciation and comment would be nice here too

Written

• There is a class like this, "answervalidator.cpp" but it's ugly old and eats kittens. Cleaning it up would be ok. Things like word similarity are in there.
  • Moved some of the code to the new WrittenPracticeValidator class maybe move more funtionality there ?

• how far do we want to go when comparing answers? what feedback should the user get?
  • you made a spelling mistake (this can be done by running spellcheckers and comparing what they suggest for a word with the solution)
  • you wrote nonsense

All Practice Modes

• DISCUSS: define our terminology, e.g. is it grade or box, answer or solution, correct or right, incorrect or wrong etc.

• TODO: implement support for showing pronunciation for every practice frontend

• TODO: implement support for sound for every practice frontend

• TODO: add a "Auto-play sound" option to the practice settings and implement it

• TODO KDE 4.6: sound - rename "enable sound" to "autoplay sound" and implement it

Grades

Grades are equivalent to boxes (leitner), they are:

• 0 not practiced
• 1 lowest level
• ...
• 7 best level
• Words are answered correctly:
  • a correct answer gives grade += 1
  • a word that has been answered correctly is not asked again
• Words are answered wrong:
  • a wrong answer gives grade = 1 (reset to lowest level). Wrong anserws are:
    • If a hint message has been used (may change policy here later if it doesn't work out)
    • If an accent and/or capitalisation mistake was made (might be accepted as right if the option is chosen in the config)
  • If answer stays the same after enter is pressed a second time assume the user doesn't know the answer and continue.
  • Just print a different message if the user corrected himself and the answer was right
  • words that were incorrectly answered will come up again until they are answered correctly (or the practice is stopped)
  • DISCUSS: when a word is answered after being answered wrong before, it ends up on level 2, if the practice is stopped before, it stays in level 1 (Leitner says it stays in 1 ?)

• TODO: implement grading as described above and make sure it works in all modes
• TODO: Respect Leitner option to ask for the correct answer three times in a row.
• DISCUSS: If you answer an unknown word wrong or right doesn't matter as by definition above wrong words get set to level 1 (from 0) and right words get increased to 1 (from 0). I changed that correct new words end up in level 2 ? (BEN_SCHL)
• DISCUSS: what happens when practicing with multiple modes? does only the last mode affect the grading? make in configurable? (DOES THIS STILL APPLY?)
• DISCUSS: find out if restricting the grading for each mode makes sense (e.g. saying "if i practice in multiple choice, the word can only rise up to grade 3")
  • TODO: figure out a sane way to configure this or give different grades for each practice mode ?

• TODO: pass in 3 int from backend to frontend: current, good, bad (so that the selection of right/wrong can be previewed correctly)
  • note: basically it is already implemented, but in a quick and in some (most?) cases wrong way. we probably need some TestEntry::gradeIfWrong() etc or something like that

Summary Page (after practice is finished)

• TODO for some practice modes the result is complete nonsense - eg conjugations show the normal words in the summary
• TODO fregl: add a button to print a list with $number words you should practice

General (not practice related)

• STILL VALID?: New rows are appended when pressing enter in the row above the last one, not in the last one - Qt 4.6 regression?
• TODO: changes in dock widgets are not reflected in table -> model needs to emit dataChanged for the view to update (not working since the editing happens without models knowledge)

• TODO: table: add column for grades (including combo box for changing the grade)
• TODO: summary dock widget: make word type work
  • setting works
  • instead of the normal model use a flat list model (proxy would work)

• TODO: remove leitner box classes
• TODO: get rid of old kDebug() messages that don't make sense out of context
• TODO: check if the column visibility is saved correctly in all cases

• TODO fregl: there is a broken version of the 5 language document in the files on edu.kde.org (and there should be a *version with and without* images which you can clearly separate from each other, right?)

• Settings
  • TODO: the languages that will be practiced should be per document, not global
  • TODO: other practice options should probably be per document as well

• TODO: implement undo support
• TODO: frederik be ashamed! Danish document -> 4000 words to sublessons a 20 doesn't work

• TODO: creating a new document: title is not carried over for root lesson and window title

• big todo: configurable special chars per language - come with language definition - configurable hotkey ...

• I also found a bug, when deselecting the main lesson, it resets the title to "0". When clicking it again (to select all sublessons), it renames itself to "2".

Word types

• TODO do not show word types in the table when clicking them (maybe on right click menu?)

Profiles and config and zip

• DISCUSS: Instead of using current kvtml files, use the same with compression
• add images, sound and other media into the zip file

Regressions in trunk

• TODO fregl: Auto-save in practice mode

libkdeedu

(Frederik does all of this unless someone else wants to punish himself)

• Comparison forms: use keduvoctext for forms (make grades possible)
• make grades for articles possible

Stuff to discuss today

• artwork
  • what/how/format
  • who
  • write request with lots of screenshots?
• correct/wrong states, it it ok how they are currently implemented (especially in written mode)
  • great, but: longer ? in written (see above)
• what grammar modes do we need and how can they be implemented
  • can we reuse/extend our frontend/backend modes?
• grading for grammar training
• create example document(s) making use of all our advanced features for testing
  • grammar training
  • multiple choice options
  • two images per entry, pronunciation, sound
  • ...
• blockers before merging the branch back to trunk
• timeline for merging, release schedule
• synonym/antonym: what to keep? what about semicolons?

Usability session with Leinir

Dan, Lydia, Daniel and Frederik sat down in Randa and these are some notes on usability.

Comments from Lydia:

Start Practice

• table is big and in your face, but maybe that is ok
• check boxes should be tri-state - parent lessons should be half-checked if only some of their children are selected
• only show the relevant column with grades instead of all of them
• do not offer to start practices that contain 0 words! it's borked!
  • kind of fixed by daniel - now it shows a message box, but it's not the end of the world any more

Practice

• flash cards: change continue button to "show backside"
• pic placeholder is ugly in default theme
• progressbar should maybe start counting at 1
• label: "I did not know it" "I know it" -- or "Did you know the answer?": "yes" - "no"
• mixed letters are getting grey on grey -> generally font color is problematic
• Multiple choice needs shortcuts (key 1-5 for example) and continue button should be disabled until a choice is selected.

• conjugation mode: "Enter all conjugation forms" is a silly string and should be removed.

Document Properties

• get email from kuser-something
• categories: test preparation makes no sense as category
• tooltip for checkboxes
• remove flags for languages

Comments from Dan:

• create video tutorials

Start Screen

• hide "last opened" string if list is empty
• title could be "Parley - Vocabulary Trainer" use kqtitlewidget

Editor

• subtypes in word types should always get their parent's type by default

Start Practice

• indent tenses below radio buttons
• always show tenses (both Daniel and Frederik are against this)
• remove status bar
• remove tree indicator from tense selection
• enable practice checkbox by default in file dialog (depending on current component)
• remove "Editor" from toolbar, make sure it is in the menu though

schedule

• Since May 19th: Soft Message Freeze
  • NO NEW STRINGS, NO STRING CHANGES ANY MORE (ask Frederik if you need to change strings and let him take the flames)
• June 2nd: Documentation/Handbook Freeze
  • Have an updated documentation, work with Burkhart to get it from userbase to docbook