Beta 0.8: Edict loading and menus redone

I've finally gotten around to it: Another release!

This release changes a lot. Most notably, the context menu button is now a menubar, and the Edict dictionary file format has changed and improved in general.

Even this changelist is essentially a summary, but here's a rundown of the most major changes since 0.7:

Wareya's changes:

• Support for more (and fixes for some old) conjugations
• Added definition blacklist
• Added dropshadow ('glow') text background option
• Variable width text support: roman characters are now spaced correctly
• Stick to window feature: Finally a use for the Win32 APIs. Keeps Spark Reader aligned with the target program. I'll build upon this in the future.

Laurens's changes:

• Added 'want to learn' word list (no documentation on how to use this yet, though...), in the future this can be used to mark N1-5, top 2000 words etc. so you know what to export as flashcards.
• Added persistent statistics: see how much you've read and more. More stats and a better UI will be added in later versions.
• Major UI changes: the furigana bar is now a menu bar, and the old menu button is now a minimise button. Minor fixes as well.
• Major dictionary changes: Now using JMDict instead of the older Edict2 format. This takes up more disk space but provides many advantages, and much more data for Spark Reader to work with.
• Major Dictionary entry changes: now shows readings, tags and definitions based on the context the word was used in. Entry UI changed accordingly.
• Enter key passthrough (advanced): for games that require Spark Reader to stay focussed but you still want enter to advance the text.
• Various performance improvements for startup speed, memory usage and rendering.

Important notes:

• Due to some changes, your preferred definitions will be reset on upgrading to this version! Shouldn't be too big of a deal, and the JMDict upgrade fixes some of the wrong definitions anyway (ignore if you're a new user).
• You can delete the 'edict2' file from your old installation's dictionaries folder, and make sure the new 'JMDict' file is in there instead (ignore if you're a new user).
• The manual is now comically out of date with these UI changes... I'll probably rewrite it from scratch if/when I ever update it. Message me if you have any problems getting it working, I'll try my best to help.

Coming up in the next update will be some changes in how the UI and internal dictionary model are connected, which will open up the way to things like mouseover definitions/'rikaisama mode', amongst other major UI changes.

Happy reading!

Beta 0.7: Deconjugator overhaul

After some procrastination and uncertainty of when I should make this release, 0.7 is finally here.
This marks the first release with code contributed by someone other than me, namely @wareya who has redone the deconjugator.

The major changes for this release are:

• A new, recursive deconjugator! This should be much better at working with complicated conjugations on some verbs than my old implementation. If you have any problems with it, you can still switch to the old one in the settings (do report these issues though, as the old one might go away in the future)
• The list of conjugations are now shown in the order they appear in the words instead of the order they were deconjugated in, which should be much easier to read.
• Improved furigana! It can now have the same conjugation as the word instead of just having it in dictionary form. It can also remove the okurigana, showing only the pronunciations of Kanji.
• Words marked as common in Edict should now be prioritised by the dictionary sorter.
• The parser can be disabled, so only words you split manually will be looked up. Good for more advanced readers I suppose.
• Spark Reader now checks if the root dictionary directory is actually a valid Epwing directory (normally it should be in a subfolder, but now this works too)
• If the UI somehow becomes hidden or inaccessible, Spark Reader will detect this and close properly.
• Experimental keyboard controls. Off by default, but may be useful for people reading with trackpad or want ESC to quickly minimise the program. A/Z scroll up and down, X middle clicks. More shortcuts, and user-editable shortcuts will be for a later release.

This release is mainly so I can start working on some bigger features, like major UI features, and the soon to be introduced Kuromoji assisted parsing (meaning way less middle clicking!)

Beta 0.6: Epwing support

Epwing support is finally here! This took a while, but it finally works. Or at least, the one I tested...
There's still some issues with it, but It's in a usable state, so I'm releasing it to get some feedback on the details.

The definition text renderer's also been improved. You can now display definitions above the text if you want (still some problems with this, but it works well enough) and scrolling is now by line instead of by block. It's also faster, quite useful with those massive Epwing definitions (don't worry, a basic filtering system is available too)

Other changes:

• Line splitter speed improvements.
• Added a loading screen during startup.
• Dictionaries are now loaded and prioritised based on user settings and what is found in the dictionary folder during startup.
• Release no longer includes a preferences folder, it can now be generated when needed.
• A whole lot of minor and less-than-minor bug fixes and changes.

There's also some interesting improvements coming up for 0.7, check the main page for what's to come.

Beta 0.5: Preparing for bigger features

This release includes quite a few internal changes to prepare for Epwing and an experimental memory hooker. Unfortunately, neither of these are working yet, but a ton of other stuff has been changed so far (including working Multiplayer!), so I thought I'd release this until then.

• reorganised folder structure. NOTE: You will need to either start with a new settings file if moving from 0.4 or manually change/remove the "path" options in settings.txt!
• Multiplayer now actually works! It's still a bit buggy, but you can now read along with your friends (note: requires friends).
• added full line export with an optional screenshot of the game. See the manual for how you can bring this into Anki while keeping the image and line connected.
• Allow option to always show reading, or show reading on mouseover, or never for both known and unknown words individually.
• reorganised options menu slightly, along with other minor wording/organisation changes to hopefully make it more easy to use.
• bugfix: 'italic' text mode was being seen as 'bold' text mode.
• you can now right click anywhere on the furigana bar to show the options menu.
• Allow option to hide when non-Japanese text is copied, or no Kanji is present.
• Added option to start in tray if no Japanese text is present.
• definition/line comment text is now remembered for other words if you're still on the same line to save typing.
• Optionally add individual Kanji as dictionary entries.
• added option to disable closing definitions when the mouse moves off the window.
• The Spark Reader tray icon now has a right click menu with some shortcuts.
• moved single word/definition export to a right click menu on definitions.
• you can now copy lines within definitions, or the whole definition text, to your clipboard.
• Have "Lookup in spark reader" option when Japanese text is right clicked in definitions (this may be useful for Epwing support later).
• fixes/changes too minor to list here.

Beta 0.4: Settings GUI

Editing settings is now user friendly! The internal settings system has also been improved, making adding settings simpler for me as well.

By the way, you can carry your settings from previous versions over to newer ones as long as you don't replace the settings.txt file. (Later releases won't come with one to stop this from being overwritten) Any settings not yet in your settings.txt will automatically be added with their default value.

No GUI editor for user dictionaries yet, unfortunately.

Other noteworthy changes include:

• Even more misc. improvements to the deconjugator
• More settings for you to customise
• Various bug fixes and improvements

Download the first zip file and extract all the files somewhere. Run Spark Reader.jar and read the included manual if you need help.

Beta 0.3: multi-line support

After much delay, I've finally added proper multi-line support. I figured it's easiest to add it now than to wait until the rendering system gets even more complicated. Right now, it only splits the text if it was split in the game (if the game rolls over to the next line without line breaks, or the text hooker doesn't catch them, it will still all be on one line). This feature is optional and can be disabled in the settings.

Some other features include:

• Improved Anki export. You can now add comments when you export, Kanji details will be added and the definitions are formatted slightly better
• Many small UI improvements made while adding multi-line support, including a full background colour, starting in the 'centre' of the expected window instead of at the very top right, and word whose definition is shown.
• Small improvements to the deconjugator (typos fixed, past+potential form now works...) Probably still a lot to do there

With these UI changes, the manual's pictures are a little outdated. I have more UI changes planned (a proper settings and user dictionary editing tool), so I'll wait until that's done to add changes.

Also, EPWING dictionary support might be coming soon, stay tuned!

Beta 0.2

Major changes:

• Now supports VN engines that require loss of focus to ignore clicks. Check the bottom of the settings.txt file to enable it if needed.
• Many small UI improvements (most notably minimise to tray support)
• Support for many more verb conjugations
• Manual updated to include these new features

Download the first zip file and extract all the files somewhere. Run Spark Reader.jar and read the included manual if you need help.

First public beta

First ever release! Important things to note:

• Probably lots of bugs
• Not all conjugations supported
• Multiplayer is known to be completely broken

Download the first zip file and extract all the files somewhere. Run Spark Reader.jar and read the included manual if you need help.