Vocabulary Learning Assistant Files

Vocabulary Learning Assistant Version 0.1 25/07/2016

SET UP

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This program uses text (.txt) files to store the current state and the words or phrases that are tested. Included in the download are example text files for these purposes, which were created when I wrote this program to learn French with.

To run the program, compile the files FileHandler.java, Interface.java, RunQuiz. java and VLA.java. The program expects the Config.txt file to be in /VocabularyLearningAssistant/Config, and all word files that may be tested to be in /VocabularyLearningAssistant/*wordFile* where *wordFile* is the name of each text file. If you want to change this, change the value of final String filePath in Interace.java.

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TO RUN THE PROGRAM REPEATEDLY:

This program is very useful when scheduled to run repeatedly, for example every 5 minutes. This is an easy way to learn vocabulary. On Linux, the scheduling tool Cron can be used:

In a terminal, enter crontab -e. Now add the following line to run the program every 5 minutes:

*/5 * * * * env DISPLAY=:0.0 java -jar /path_to_compiled_jar_file.jar

If you do not have Java installed, run this command in a terminal:

sudo apt-get install openjdk-6-jdk

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STRUCTURE OF THE CONFIG.TXT FILE:

First line: Delay - Number of minutes to be skipped, if the user has specified the program not to run for a certain amount of time. Currently the only option in the GUI is 60 minutes.
Second line: Iteration Number - Incremented each time the program runs, counts to 4 and resets. Used to test on the General.txt file every certain number of iterations.
Third line: Translation Direction - Choose whether to give word 1 or word 2, with the user answering the word not give. Either a 0 or a 1.
Fourth line: Current text file being used to test.
After the fourth line is a list of all text files that the program has access to, including the one currently in use.
The config file should not containt any blank lines.

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STRUCTURE OF THE OTHER TEXT FILES:

The text files containing the content to be tested have the following structure:
word1.word2.score
This repeats on new lines for each pair of words or phrases.
word1 and word2 are strings, separated by the '.' character. Score is an integer value, greater than or equal to 0, that counts how many times the user got that pair wrong since the file or word was last reset. The higher the score, the more likely the user is to be tested on that pair again.

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This program is licensed with the Creative Commons Attribution License.

If you have questions or require assistance, review or post in the discussion for this program on Sourceforge, or contact me via Sourceforge at alexjyoung97@users.sourceforge.net.