Beta Anki friendly intelligent flashcards

[Drack]

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App Store
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The version of Anki in the app store as of this writing is one of my earlier beta ports of Anki, not the PND linked in this post. I didn't upload it. Please don't download that one, it has a few features broken.

Please use the Repository instead.

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LATEST PND DOWNLOAD
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http://repo.openpandora.org/?page=detail&app=anki

New in 1.2.8-drack3
-Another fix for FAT32 cards.
-Disabled toolbar by default. You can re-enable it by right clicking the menu bar.

New in 1.2.8-drack2
-Fix for "Operation not permitted" error on FAT32 formatted SD Cards

New 1.2.8-drack1
-Updated from Anki version 1.2.4 to 1.2.8
-Sync works
-Embedded pictures work

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What is Anki?
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I'll let Anki's website do the talking. Here's an excerpt: "Anki is a program which makes remembering things easy. Because it is a lot more efficient than traditional study methods, you can either greatly decrease your time spent studying, or greatly increase the amount you learn. Anyone who needs to remember things in their daily life can benefit from Anki. Since it is content-agnostic and supports images, audio, videos and scientific markup (via LaTeX), the possibilities are endless."


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Q&A
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Q: I can't sync. Anki tells me my clock is off by like 34 thousand seconds and cancels the sync.
A: Please upgrade to HotFix 5. If you're already on Hotfix 5, check that your clock is set properly. (Anki does not require HF5, even for sync. It just requires an accurately set clock. Before HF5, the Pandora's clock was set incorrectly during setup due to the time zone logic)

Q: I'm studying Japanese, but a lot of the Japanese characters are showing up as boxes, or are written in the Chinese style. How do I fix this?
A:

Spoiler

The Japanese font that comes with the Pandora is poor. It's missing a lot of kanji and shows a lot of the kanji it does have in the Chinese style. If you use Japanese in your deck, you really ought to download a better font.

To add a font to the Pandora, download a TrueType (.ttf) font and add it to /usr/share/fonts/truetype/ Yes, this is on your NAND if you aren't booting from SDCard. I haven't figured out a way to get anki to search for fonts inside appdata yet. Anyway, quality Japanese unicode fonts are freely and legally available here.

My favorite among that bunch is EPSON 教科書体 (epkyouka.ttf, "Epson Textbook"). This font is very good for those studying how to write characters because it shows them how they are properly written, not like a block font you'd get out of a computer. It also scales down to small sizes extremely well and is the easiest to read Japanese font I've encountered for kanji. It's available from that site (via epson.jp), but it comes in a self extracting .exe so I rehosted it here (4MB download)

After you add a Japanese font to your /usr/share/fonts/truetype/ folder, you can make anki use it using the Card Layout menu, which can be accessed using the blueprint icon in the toolbar, or from Edit in the menu bar.

Q: What is Anki's license? Where can I get the Source Code?
A: Anki and this port of it are Free Software licensed under GPLv3. Every library inside that PND has source code available from their respective websites. Anki's source code is available via git at https://github.com/dae Additionally, the source code for Anki is available inside the PND, as it's a python application.

Q: What are your recommended settings?
A: First of all, I have changed the default number of deck backups to keep from 30 to 1. 30 backups is really excessive on an SDCard and will eat up your free space. Feel free to set it back if you disagree with me.
I recommend running Anki from minimenu or setting your XFCE taskbar to auto-hide, because Anki needs all the vertical space it can get
I also disable the Anki toolbar by default for the same reason. Right click the menu bar if you want to restore it.

Q: Why is the .PND 58MB?!
A: Because I included Python, Qt, PyQt, and other dependencies in it. The Embedded Qt that comes with the Pandora can't run Anki due to some functions missing from the embedded version. The version of Python included with the Pandora causes problems with Anki Sync. For these reasons, I compiled working versions of these libraries from source and included them inside the PND. That's what's taking up all that space, even after squashfs compression.

 

[Lorkile]

Thanks, now I just need to figure out how to move that font file from SD to the location so I can study Japanese and I'm set. Well, that and figuring out your instructions for setting the time.

Also, don't suppose you would be willing to note the time bug in the recent hotfix thread so it could make it's way into the firmware.
http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?/topic/56266-hotfix-4-beta-3-released/

 

[zapman]

thx Drack, you solved the problem! Anki now works on my girlfriends SD card as well! Thank you very much, you really made her happy!!

 

[Lorkile]

Any chance you could make something I can just run that will fix my clock, or possibly just explain why in the terminal after I cd to that location when I ls I get is two file names to display and from there I can't figure out what to do.

More importantly seems to be that I can't move the Japanese font file you suggested off my SD card (or copy it for that matter) as my NAND seems to be set to read-only. Any suggestions?

 

[Drack]

Any chance you could make something I can just run that will fix my clock, or possibly just explain why in the terminal after I cd to that location when I ls I get is two file names to display and from there I can't figure out what to do.

More importantly seems to be that I can't move the Japanese font file you suggested off my SD card (or copy it for that matter) as my NAND seems to be set to read-only. Any suggestions?

I can't make much of anything right now, my Pandora is broken and will have to be sent in for repairs. As I'm in the USA, this could take weeks. No Pandora programs will be coming from me for a while.

I can, however, walk you through the process of setting everything up. I realize my instructions in the first post can be a little difficult to follow for someone who isn't a Linux geek. Let be put this plainly: I consider this port to be beta software, meaning it works but the user experience is a little rough around the edges. You should be expecting this in the Beta Testing forum, but I know you're anxious to try the app out so I'll make an effort to help you help yourself. Sorry if some of the things I'm about to say sound really really basic, but I don't know much about your skill level.

Instructions:

Spoiler

You'll need to use the terminal for this. If this makes you squirm, you'll probably want to read a tutorial for it like this one I found on Google.

Enough intro. I'm assuming you already have the font on your SD Card's root directory (not in any folders), and I'm also assuming that you got the Epson Textbook font I linked in the first post (epkyouka.ttf). This will work with other fonts, just substitute "epkyouka.ttf" for the name of their ttf file.

Insert the SD card into the Pandora's left slot.
Click on the start menu (Pandora logo) and then click Terminal. Type this:

cd /media

Then press enter. The terminal is case sensitive, by the way. "cd" is shorthand for "change directory" This is like double clicking a folder in the graphical interface. Now do this command:

ls

That's a lowercase "LS" by the way. You should see a list of stuff printed out, including the name of your SD card. If you didn't name your SD Card when you formatted it, it will just be something like "mmcblk0p1" so use that if you don't recognize anything here. It's a device, but linux treats devices like folders so the terminal thinks it's a folder. What you want to do is change directory, or "cd" to that folder (If you named your card, substitute mmcblk0p1 for the name of your card):

cd mmcblk0p1

If you don't feel like typing mmcblk0p1 you can copy and paste, by the way. Just highlight it in the terminal with the touch screen, then hold both L and R shoulder buttons and press C to copy, hold both shoulder buttons L and R and press V to paste. You can also use what we call tab completion. This is a lazy way to enter commands where you only type part of the command then press tab (Fn + Space on the Pandora) and it fills in the rest for you. Anyway, let's see if you find your font here:

ls

Do you see epkyouka.ttf there? Let's assume you do. It's time to move ("mv") the font over to the NAND where Anki can use it. The NAND is protected from tampering, however, so you'll have to put in your password to move a file to it. This is achieved using the "sudo" command, which basically says "Do only this command with administrative rights" So enter this command. It will ask your for your password, and you also won't see ***** pop up while you type. The trailing slash in this command is important, don't forget it.

sudo mv epkyouka.ttf /usr/share/fonts/truetype/

After you put in your password, the command will take a bit to complete. You should not see any error, the prompt should just appear after a few seconds. If so, you're done with the terminal, close it and start Anki. Open your deck, and go to Settings (in the menu bar), and click "Fonts and Colours" The new font should appear in the list as "EPSON 教科書体" Select it for use in any fields in your deck that contain Japanese kanji. If you're using the Japanese plugin, this will be the Japanese model and the fields "Expression" and "Reading"

That was a lot of typing. If you need more help with the clock I'll do a more detailed writeup of that too.

 

[Lorkile]

That's sad to hear about your Pandora, my first one had two dead nubs on arrival (I live about Seattle, WA so I know the pain of letting it go for awhile). Took mine about a month between shipping time and for another batch of Pandoras to be sent out for me to get my replacement.

Thanks for the info, that seems to have worked.

 

[Drack]

After 4 months, I have received my repaired pandora.

During this interval, Anki has had several updates, including 1.2 (which was a major release with a LOT of changes).

I'm presently setting up my pandora development environment again, and will begin work on porting the current version to the Pandora. I'll post a PND when it's ready.

 

[zapman]

After 4 months, I have received my repaired pandora.

During this interval, Anki has had several updates, including 1.2 (which was a major release with a LOT of changes).

I'm presently setting up my pandora development environment again, and will begin work on porting the current version to the Pandora. I'll post a PND when it's ready.

good news! Looking forward to the updated pnd, thx

 

[Drack]

Top post updated, PND now available for current version.

I have found some bugs with this PND. Please read the top post.

 

[Lorkile]

Good to hear I'm not the only one who finally got their replacement recently, and even better (for me) that your back to work on the port.

Thanks again for the program, I'm downloading and will get to using later today.

 

[zapman]

Hi Drack,

I'm writing on behalf of my girlfriend, who is so amazingly lazy and convincing at the same time..

Her version of Anki shows version 1.0.1 in the "about" section but she has your latest .pnd (from http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8938380/anki-1.2.4-drack1.pnd) Is this just a display error or did you accidently upload an old version?

She also gets the message that the sync protocol has changed and anki should be updated to version 1.2.5 (although the latest version is 1.2.7)

Could you have a quick look pls?

Thank you for your releases again!

 

[Lorkile]

Drack, hate to note but I've come across the same thing when booting up Anki the first time. I mean, that it's noting that it should be updated to 1.2.5, though I hadn't checked on the latest version.

It doesn't appear to come with any real issues, but seems worth noting. Thanks again for the port.

 

[GuchaRU]

Just installed the anki. Everything works great, and with kanji, BUT for some reason some kanji are missing and replaced by rectangles, i dont know why... Even the most basic ones like "kaeru", so it isn't the font issue probably...

Does anyone have any ideas what could it be?...

to mods: could you please fix topic title to "some kainji are missing". typos :-/

 

[sebt3]

why didnt you posted that in http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?/topic/56293-anki-friendly-intelligent-flashcards/ ?

 

[WizardStan]

Merged with beta thread.

edit: dangit, I did it backwards... Ok, I can fix this... I hope I got the title right. Sorry guys.

 

[GuchaRU]

Okay, I installed font, everything good and all, but there's no "Fonts and Colours" in anki properties... what should I do?

 

[Lorkile]

Hope that Drack comes back sometime, or search through the options to see if you can find one that seems close.

 

[Drack]

First post updated with new release!

Please let me know what you think. If there are no major bugs or missing features found, I will continue development in the News Zone forum, as this will no longer be considered beta.

 

[Drack]

Okay, I installed font, everything good and all, but there's no "Fonts and Colours" in anki properties... what should I do?

I realize this question is a month old, but in case it's still helpful to answer, my information in that top post is out of date. Anki 1.2 changed the font and color selection to the "Card Layout" menu, which can be accessed using the blueprint icon in the toolbar, or from the Edit menu. I'll amend the top post to include this instead of the old instructions.

 

[milkshake]

why dont you upload to the repo?

http://repo.openpandora.org