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jVLT - a vocabulary learning tool

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There are a couple of ways you can contribute to jVLT.

Patches

If there is a feature you are missing and you know how to program in JAVA, you could implement the feature yourself and send me a patch. Check the download page for the latest source release or check out the most recent source code via SVN.

Language details files

jVLT allows to specify language-specific details, like gender, declension, etc. You can find out which languages are supported by opening the properties dialog (Edit -> Properties). You can add files for additional languages by following these steps:
  • Download the source code tarball and unpack it.
  • Create a new language details file in the data directory. The name of the file has the format details_LANGUAGE.xml, where LANGUAGE is the English name of the language in lower-case letters.
  • Edit the new language file. Word classes can be specified via the <class> tag, attributes via the <attribute> tag. You can use the German details file shown below as a template. It is recommended to use only lower-case letters and numbers for the class and attribute names, the names which are actually shown can be entered in the file i18n/Attributes.properties (see below).
  • Edit the file data/info.xml and add a <language> tag for the new language.
  • Edit the file i18n/Attributes.properties, section "Language specific attributes", and add the English translation of the class/attribute names.
  • Compile jVLT according to the instructions on the download page.
German details file:


<schema lang="german">
    <class name="noun"/>
    <class name="verb"/>
    <class name="adjective"/>
    <class name="adverb"/>
    <attribute name="gender" classes="noun">
        <choice name="feminine"/>
        <choice name="masculine"/>
        <choice name="neuter"/>
    </attribute>
    <attribute name="gensi" classes="noun" group="declension"/>
    <attribute name="nompl" classes="noun" group="declension"/>
    <attribute name="pret1" classes="verb" group="conjugation"/>
    <attribute name="pastp" classes="verb" group="conjugation"/>
</schema>


Translations

At the time of this writing, there are the following translations for jVLT: Czech, English, French, German, and Polish. For translating jVLT into a new language, you can follow the steps below.
  • Download the source code release and unpack it.
  • In the unpacked folder, there is a "i18n" directory which contains the translation files. Copy the English translation files Actions.properties, Attributes.properties, Labels.properties and Messages.properties to files with the format <prefix>_<lc>_<cc>.properties, where "lc" is a two letter language code and "cc" is a two-letter country code. An example: The French attributes file is named Attributes_fr_FR.properties.
  • The translation files contain lines that look like
    key = Translation
    Replace all English texts by new strings in your language. Note that the files have to be formatted in UTF-8 which may not be supported by all text editors.
  • In the Actions_<lc>_<cc>.properties file, there are some strings containing the character "$". This character marks the character that is used as the mnemonic key for a command. The mnemonic keys can be used to access a button, text field, etc., via the keyboard.
  • Find the lines in the file src/JVLT.java that look similar to the lines given below:
    private static Locale[] _locales = {
    Locale.US, Locale.GERMANY };
    and change them in the following manner:
    private static Locale[] _locales = {
    Locale.US, Locale.GERMANY, new Locale("fr", "FR") };
  • Compile jVLT according to the instructions on the download page.

Documentation

At the time of this writing, jVLT provides documentation in English, Czech and French. Please contact me if you are planning to add documentation in a new language.

Dictionaries

If you have created a dictionary which you think might me useful to others, you could send it to me. I will then make it available on the vocabulary page. You could also add new words and examples to the existing sample files.

Bug reports

If you find a bug, you can report it in the forums.