Kanji-Flash Electronic Dictionary for OS/2 fully utilizes the information in EDICT allowing searching of entries with optional restrictions on number of kanji, usage tags, location, and levels of KANJI difficulty for the search text. It has its own built-in Japanese font that allows it to run on ordinary U.S. OS/2 systems.
The EDICT database is huge. The February 11, 1997 version is in two parts, the main part (EDICT) is 2382834 bytes long with 59770 entries, and the "name" version (ENAMDICT.EUC) is 3822924 bytes long with 114438 entries. It is still growing; the July 10, 1995 (version 95-002) was in one 3896060-byte long file (EDICT.EUC) containing 104534 vocabulary entries.
The user interface of Kanji-Flash Electronic Dictionary for OS/2 is able to switch between two formats, a full-sized form that allows access to all controls, and a compact form that takes up very little desktop space.
The File menu allows specification of a logging file into which specified elements of all entries will be written as they are located. This file may be viewed and edited with a standard Japanese editor such as Moke from KiCompWare (KiComp Ware, Appleton,WI, 612-773-8621).
An Actions menu choice allows the automatic stepping through of entries satisfying your specified conditions. These may be stepped while only sending the results to the logging file, or may be displayed for a specified interval to allow visual review.
Another Actions choice makes a thorough check of the integrity of the dictionary. Each entry is counted and its format checked; flawed entries are written to the log file.
A Levels menu permits the specification of KANJI levels allowed or required in the search results. For example, the search may be restricted to all entries that use KANJI from grades 1 through 3. Or, the search restriction may be to all entries that use at least one Level 1 KANJI that is not in the Common Use (Jouyou) KANJI list. This capability even allows the specification of a user-defined KANJI list. One can printout a list of all words that use at least one KANJI from the user-supplied KANJI list, or alternatively, that use only KANJI from the user list. Numerous variations are possible.
Subsets of the loaded dictionary may be spawned allowing the creation of specialized dictionaries with restricted vocabulary and KANJI levels for introductory students, or for the creation of specialized technical dictionaries. These may then be used as the source dictionary instead of the entire Edict database. In addition, a sorting feature allows dictionaries to be sorted with duplicate entries removed. Thus, dictionaries with overlapping entries may be efficiently combined.
Search results may be printed (or FAXed) in a space-saving, multi-column format established by a print options selection window. Separate print options are maintained for each printer or fax device. In fact, the entire dictionary may be printed out by doing an unrestricted, automatic search with the printing feature active.
A slider bar, visible in the full-size mode, shows where in the dictionary the current entry was found. Also, if moved with the mouse or cursor keys, it can set the beginning of the search to be at other than the first entry.
The Kanji-Flash Electronic Dictionary for OS/2 is a fast, fully 32-bit, OS/2-Presentation-Manager application with a complete context-sensitive help system and long file-name capability. It is designed to be compatible with all future, improved releases of Edict; it uses whatever version of Edict is located in the current directory.
Kanji-Flash Electronic Dictionary for OS/2 is not only a powerful dictionary search engine, it is also a valuable teaching and learning tool for Japanese KANJI and vocabulary.
A problem has been uncovered when printing on IBM printers. Printing on HP printers is ok. The problem is with an IBM-supplied class library that needs to be fixed by IBM. The release of Kanji-Flash Dictionary for OS/2 must await an IBM fix and they are not hustling! Please watch this page for ordering information or send us an e-mail note asking to be informed at the release date.
Kanji-Flash Softworks / craig@yosemitefoothills.com
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