Hi everyone,
I'm a fellow language enthusiast, I've been learning languages for more than 10 years and have studied several languages. I used to use Learning With Texts back in the day, I've also used LingQ and several alternatives, but I always felt like there was something missing from each of those projects. Lately, I've been studying web development, me and some other devs are working on the beginning stages of a project that means a lot to me. I want to develop a modern, free, open-source alternative to LingQ, LWT, etc.
We are currently in the design stages and I'm wondering what are the most important things to you? What do you feel an app like this should do well? For example, would it be important for you to be able to add little know languages like LWT does? Is having access to community translations important to you (like LingQ) or do you prefer to use a dictionary so you can choose the best translation yourself? Do you prefer that unknown words are highlighted, or only words that you have clicked on?
Any suggestions please feel free to let me know here, and thanks in advance!
Modern open source alternative to LWT, lingq etc
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- White Belt
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- Henkkles
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Re: Modern open source alternative to LWT, lingq etc
Wiktionary lookup with etymology and declension table, if those are available/relevant. Easy way to see all sentences where you've seen the same word before!
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Re: Modern open source alternative to LWT, lingq etc
TSS42 wrote:Completely cloud-based, no local installation.
Text marking and labelling.
Easy dictionary integration out of the box.
Doesn't go mad and marks everything as new, like 'yes', 'no', 'but',...
I was wondering between using a local version and a cloud version. The cloud version is much more interesting in a lot of ways, e.g. shared translations. The problem I see with it is that if it became very popular in the future, I would have to pay server and database costs. That is a long way off but I would like to have something that is free for everyone to use if possible.
When you say dictionary integration, do you mean that the user can define any dictionary that they want to use, like in LWT?
How would you handle making words as new? What if someone is new to a language and everything is new to them? Or would you prefer that words not be marked as new, only words that you choose to translate are highlighted?
Thanks for your reply.
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Re: Modern open source alternative to LWT, lingq etc
Henkkles wrote:Wiktionary lookup with etymology and declension table, if those are available/relevant. Easy way to see all sentences where you've seen the same word before!
I like the idea of seeing all sentences where you've seen the same word, I wonder if I can do this without bloating the database... If anyone here knows how to design SQL databases feel free to get in touch.
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Re: Modern open source alternative to LWT, lingq etc
Suggestions:
1) It would be nice if the software is a FOSS Project and the monetization is done with the cloud service.
2) Please add a list of "learned words"
An option to show IPA transcriptions if the readers wants. It could be done on an optional basis and non-intrusive. Like hovering over a word and seen the IPA. The Wiktionary can provide reliable IPA transcriptions for many languages and there are methods on GitHub that allow extraction of IPA (I have extracted them for German and French and made dictionaries for GoldenDict). For example:
3) Someone recently began a project called "Elreader" but development stopped. However, on the feedback section you would find many good suggestions : https://elreader.com/
https://feedback.elreader.com/
4) Some kind of integration with Anki would be excellent !
1) It would be nice if the software is a FOSS Project and the monetization is done with the cloud service.
2) Please add a list of "learned words"
An option to show IPA transcriptions if the readers wants. It could be done on an optional basis and non-intrusive. Like hovering over a word and seen the IPA. The Wiktionary can provide reliable IPA transcriptions for many languages and there are methods on GitHub that allow extraction of IPA (I have extracted them for German and French and made dictionaries for GoldenDict). For example:
3) Someone recently began a project called "Elreader" but development stopped. However, on the feedback section you would find many good suggestions : https://elreader.com/
https://feedback.elreader.com/
4) Some kind of integration with Anki would be excellent !
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Re: Modern open source alternative to LWT, lingq etc
Decent conjugation/declension and being able to download lists of learned words in their dictionary form (e.g. for Anki) with relevant sentences attached. That would take everything a real step beyond the main offerings.
But, obviously, that's hard in many languages.
But, obviously, that's hard in many languages.
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- rdearman
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Re: Modern open source alternative to LWT, lingq etc
languagedev wrote:TSS42 wrote:Completely cloud-based, no local installation.
Text marking and labelling.
Easy dictionary integration out of the box.
Doesn't go mad and marks everything as new, like 'yes', 'no', 'but',...
I was wondering between using a local version and a cloud version. The cloud version is much more interesting in a lot of ways, e.g. shared translations. The problem I see with it is that if it became very popular in the future, I would have to pay server and database costs. .
That is nothing compared to the costs you are going to pay for copyright infringement when somebody uploads Harry Potter, Dune, and a thousand other copyrighted works.
Edit, LWT will let you export to anki as well. The lwt guy used to post here, and I think it is still in active development.
Rather than a cloud installation, I think you should go for a docker instance.
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- MorkTheFiddle
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Re: Modern open source alternative to LWT, lingq etc
Beli Tsar wrote:Decent conjugation/declension and being able to download lists of learned words in their dictionary form (e.g. for Anki) with relevant sentences attached. That would take everything a real step beyond the main offerings.
I second this request.
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- MorkTheFiddle
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Re: Modern open source alternative to LWT, lingq etc
rdearman wrote:Rather than a cloud installation, I think you should go for a docker instance.
I second this suggestion as well. Why cuff yourself to the internet? For the same reason, let users use locally installed dictionaries if they choose.
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Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson
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Re: Modern open source alternative to LWT, lingq etc
daniel1234 wrote:Suggestions:
1) It would be nice if the software is a FOSS Project and the monetization is done with the cloud service.
2) Please add a list of "learned words"
An option to show IPA transcriptions if the readers wants. It could be done on an optional basis and non-intrusive. Like hovering over a word and seen the IPA. The Wiktionary can provide reliable IPA transcriptions for many languages and there are methods on GitHub that allow extraction of IPA (I have extracted them for German and French and made dictionaries for GoldenDict). For example:
3) Someone recently began a project called "Elreader" but development stopped. However, on the feedback section you would find many good suggestions : https://elreader.com/
https://feedback.elreader.com/
4) Some kind of integration with Anki would be excellent !
1) It will be 100% FOSS, I'm planning on posting all source code in GitHub so anyone can use it, modify it or hopefully even contribute. I'm also going to write up about the design choices and structures that we choose so it will make it easier for anyone that wants to take on this type of project in the future.
2) I'm planning on showing lists of words that are currently being learned and words that you have learned, along with the sentences the words appear in.
I really like the idea of showing the IPA, I'll look into it, thanks very much for the suggestion!
3) I have seen elreader around, are you sure the project has been dropped? If so I may try and get in touch with the developer... The feedback list is an excellent resource, thanks for posting it!
4) As a huge Anki fan I am hoping to add the option to export to an Anki deck.
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Language enthusiast, co-founder of https://tryalexandria.com/ - A modern, free and open-source alternative to LWT
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