Provided by: kdrill_6.5deb2-12_amd64 bug

NAME

       kdrill - drill program for kanji chars under Xwindows (X11R5 or better is required to run)
       kdrill also does dictionary lookup

       Yikes.. this man-page is getting huge.  But  I  am  a  great  believer  in  having  proper
       documentation. Hopefully, this new format will help instead of hinder.

       At  some  future point in time, I shall convert this huge beast to HTML. But that point is
       not now.  [Although actually, you CAN go to http://www.bolthole.com/kdrill/ for
        some help ]

       TIP:  "/WORD" usually takes you to the next occurrence of "WORD", if you are viewing  this
       using a "man"-like program.

SECTIONS (of this man page)

        RUNTIME OPTIONS
        RESOURCES
        DESCRIPTION
        PLAYING
        PLAYING OPTIONS
        LEARNING NEW CHARS
        USEFILES
        SEARCH
        KEYBOARD ACCELERATORS
        CONFIGURATION DETAILS
        LOGFILES AND MISSED KANJI
        KANJIDIC and EDICT

RUNTIME OPTIONS

       [Note: most of these options are now somewhat redundant. Kdrill now auto-saves
        its options. But just in case you want to know about these commandline
        options...]

       -usefile NewUsefileName
              Change name of usefile, which lets you drill on specific characters.

       -nousefile
              Still read in usefile if it exists, but ignore it at startup.

       -kdictfile OtherKanjidicFile
              Use  a  different  dictionary  file  name.  You  may  have "hira.dic" or "kata.dic"
              installed, as well as "kanjidic", for example.

       -edictfile OtherKanjidicFile
              Use a different edict-style-dictionary file name. "none" for no edict.

       -englishfont FontName
              Changes only english display of english-guess buttons.

       -kanjifont KanjiFontName
              Change large kanji font.

       -smallkanji KanjiFontName
              Change small kanji/kana font for kana-guess buttons.

       -noBell
              Turns off beep on wrong answer.

       -guessmode
               say whether you want the guess choices to be in "english", "kanji", or "kana"

       -questionmode
               say whether you want the 'question' to be in "english", "kanji", or "kana"

       -showinorder
              Start in ordered mode. Go through desired kanji in order of #.

       -gradelevel <level #s>
              Start with different grade levels enabled. A string with one or more of [123456+]

       -showkana
              Start with kana meanings instead of english.

       -lowfrequency #, -highfrequency #
              Set lowest and/or highest frequency kanji you want to see.

       -logfile filename
              Change filename to log current errors to (with "Log" button)

       -notallT
              Don't insist that all dictionary entries have kana AND  English.   WARNING!  Normal
              operation  is  to ignore incomplete entries, and thereby enable switching from kana
              to english without changing the quiz kanji. Using this option will make kdrill move
              to another kanji if you switch kana to English or vica versa.
               [  default  behaviour  currently  loses  300  kanji, with the kanjidic file I have
              currently. All characters with Frequency ratings have full translations. ]

RESOURCES

       Kdrill now saves config options  in  $HOME/.kdrill,  in  X-resource  format.   The  latest
       configuration  will  automatically be saved when you quit kdrill normally.  If you want to
       change kdrill's settings, and you dont see a way to do it in the options  popup,  you  can
       probably   change   it  in  the  global  "KDrill"  resource  file,  or  in  your  personal
       "$HOME/.kdrill" file.  See the sample "KDrill"  file  for  more  detail,  which  is  often
       installed   in   /usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/KDrill,   or   someplace  similar.   Values  in
       $HOME/.kdrill will override the global settings.

Colors

       You may change the background of the windows using a resource file, as mentioned above.

DESCRIPTION

       kdrill is a program to drill users on meanings of kanji  characters.  Various  formats  of
       drills are available:

          kanji   --\ /--- kanji
          kana     --*--   kana
          english --/ \--  english

PLAYING

       kdrill  will  present  you  with  a  kanji  (or  kana or english phrase) and five possible
       meanings for it. Your goal is to guess which one matches the kanji at the top.  Initially,
       it  will  choose  randomly from the entire dictionary, so you will probably want to narrow
       the range, via the OPTIONS section, below.

       Any grade level or frequency rating the current kanji has will be  displayed  in  the  top
       right  hand  side of the window, next to the "G:" and "F:" letters. The kanji index number
       will be displayed after the "#:" sign.

       Click with your primary mouse button (usually the left one) on one of the  multiple-choice
       answered  to see how well you know the lone kanji or meaning.  You may also use the number
       keys to make your choice.  [1,2,3,4,5]

       If you guess correctly, you will move on to another character. If you  guess  incorrectly,
       you  will  have  to guess again. Furthermore, kdrill will make a note that you didn't know
       either the character displayed, or the character for the incorrect meaning you clicked on.

       If you are playing in random order, kdrill will randomly repeat the ones you have  missed.
       You  will  have  to get a missed character right twice for kdrill to think you know it. If
       you miss a character more than once, you will have to repeat the character two  times  the
       number of times you missed it. If you are playing in order, kdrill will keep to the order,
       and not go back. It will still remember ones you have missed, however, and will go back to
       them if you later switch to random order.

       There  are  two  ways of "cheating", if you are learning new characters, and don't want to
       have an incorrect guess recorded. One way is to press the "cheat" button, and the  correct
       answer  will be highlighted. The other way is to make a guess with button 2 on your mouse.
       The character of the one you clicked on will appear in the search window.  If  the  search
       window was not already open, it will appear when you do this.

PLAYING OPTIONS

       If  you  want to change the way the game works while playing, you can bring up the options
       window by pressing the options button. If you know how you want the game  to  play  before
       starting it, you can most likely do what you want with a command-line option, described at
       the top of this man-page. If you want to permanently change an option, see the "RESOURCES"
       header, above.

       The following options are to help narrow down the range of kanji you get quizzed on.

       Grades

              You  may  specify  which grade levels you wish to study, by clicking on the buttons
              labeled: "1", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "+", or "All", in the "Grade Select" window.
              You  may  also select/unselect a grade by holding down shift, followed by "1", "2",
              "3", "4", "5", "6", "+", or "a", in the main window.

              The "All" feature will select all grades. but it will not unselect them.

              The default is to have all the grades enabled.

        Frequency

              Some kanji have frequency ratings. That means that, in real life,  some  kanji  are
              used  more  frequently  than others. Frequency rating 1 means that this is the most
              frequently used character.  The frequency of the true answer you are guessing  will
              be  displayed  in  the  top  right  of the main window, next to the "F:" sign, if a
              frequency rating exists.

              The frequency range area in the options window allows you to limit  the  kanji  you
              see  based  on  their  frequency  rating.  The frequency range area consists of two
              smaller input areas; "High", and "Low".  High means a kanji that is high frequency.
              That  is  to say, something that is used often. According to the definitions of the
              dictionary, "1" means the kanji that is used the most often. A frequency rating  of
              "2"  means  that  the character has a lower frequency than "1". The most frequently
              used kanji is the character for "day", which is "F: 1".

              Setting a number in the "High" window limits high frequency kanji.  If there  is  a
              number  in  the  "High"  window,  that  means that you will see no kanji that is of
              higher frequency than that number. Similarly, setting a number in the "Low"  window
              means  that  you  will  see no kanji of frequency lower than that number. 2000 is a
              "Low" frequency kanji. If you put 2000 in the "Low" area, you would see nothing  of
              lower  frequency than the character rated at 2000 (which happens to be "hazy") that
              you would see nothing

              A blank in the "High" or "Low" fields indicates no limit in the field. If  you  try
              to set either window to "0", it will automatically set itself blank for you.

       Order

              It  is  possible  to  be drilled on kanji in order, without repetition, until "all"
              kanji have been covered. Any restrictions on grade level or  frequency  will  still
              apply.  To enable or disable ordering, click on the "Showing randomly" (or "Showing
              in order") button in the options window.

              Note that "in order" does not mean in order of frequency. It  means  in  the  order
              represented  by  the dictionary, denoted by the '#' number shown at top right. This
              happens to be the JIS-encoding of the Kanji, which we also call the kanji index.

       TIP: A good way to start learning a range of chars, is to select the
              "in order" option, and a particular grade level and/or frequency range.  Press  'C'
              (Shift-c)  for  super-cheat.  This will both highlight the correct answer, AND show
              the full kanji+kana+english meanings in the popup search window!

              When you have looked at it enough, click on the correct answer to move  on  to  the
              next kanji.

              Or rather than use the super-cheat option repeatedly... Read the next section.

LEARNING NEW CHARS

       If  you  would like a small little window to memorize new chars in, instead of the bulkier
       'main' or 'search' windows, there is now a 'learn' window.  Pressing the (learn) button on
       the  main  window  will  bring  up  the learn window, which only displays kanji, kana, and
       english meanings of a char.  Pressing one of the 'next' buttons will select a new char for
       you  to  look  at,  using  the  same  rules of choosing that the main window uses.  (grade
       levels, and an optional usefile)

USEFILES

       A usefile is a way to tell kdrill "I want to be quizzed on these  kanji,  and  ONLY  these
       specific kanji". Generally speaking, it is easier to just pick a particular grade level or
       frequency range to quiz yourself on. But if you know you want specific kanji (for example,
       to study for a class!) having a usefile is very useful.

       Grade and Frequency restrictions will apply, even if you have a usefile. Thus, if all your
       usefile-defined kanji are of grade 4 or higher, and you have only selected  grades  3  and
       lower,  kdrill will complain that there are not enough kanji available, and attempt to add
       viewable grade levels until there are enough value kanji to quiz on

       To add or remove a kanji from the "usefile",  pull  up  the  search  window,  and  view  a
       particular  kanji.  The  "usefile" button at the far right will be highlighted if it is in
       the usefile list. You can toggle the button to set the status as you wish.

       If you want to see all the kanji in your usefile, click on the "show"  button,  below  the
       "usefile"  toggle,  in  the  search  window.  It  will then show you the current list, and
       pressing on one will display it in the search window. You  can  then  remove  it  via  the
       "usefile" toggle if you like.

       When you quit kdrill, it will update the usefile, IF you have a minimum number in the list
       (currently, 10). If you want to know if you have enough, use the options window to  toggle
       "No  Usefile"  to "Using Usefile". It will not let you, if there are not enough characters
       in the list.

       If you wish kdrill to ignore your usefile when you start it up, you may use the -nousefile
       option.

       Usefile format

              If you want to edit a usefile by hand, this is the format:

              A  usefile  consists  of  a  list  of  hex numbers; one per line, no initial spaces
              allowed. A usefile lets the program know you are interested in certain kanji,  from
              the  thousands  listed  in  the dictionary.  It is possible to add comment lines by
              having the very  first  character  of  a  line  be  "#".  However,  those  will  be
              overwritten  if  you  make  changes  from  within  the program.  Hex numbers can be
              checked or found by using the "xfd" util on the "kanji24" font.  Alternatively, you
              could  use  the search window or main kdrill window.  In on of the "#" input boxes,
              type in "0x", and then the hex number.  It is best to do this in the search window,
              since the main window may have range restrictions on it.

SEARCH

       It  is  now  possible  to  search for a character in kdrill. You may search for an English
       phrase, a kana phrase, or a particular kanji.

       kdrill will automatically show the first match. If there is more than one match,  it  will
       be  shown in a secondary popup window.  That window can be changed to display the english,
       kanji, or kana meaning of each dictionary entry. Click on one to have it displayed in  the
       main search window.

       Additionally, if a search turns up a kanji phrase instead of a single kanji, you may click
       on the phrase at the top of the search window, to have the secondary multi-listing  window
       display the individual kanji for you to examine in further detail.

       English search

              First,  bring  up  the  search window by pressing the search button. Then, enter an
              English word (or fragment) in the bottom-most section  of  the  window,  and  press
              return  or  enter.  The  window will then display the first kanji it finds that has
              that word in its  definition,  along  with  its  index  number,  grade,  and  other
              information available, if any.

        Kana search

              If you want to search for a kana phrase, you now have TWO options!

              For  more  experienced  users,  you  can finally type in that tempting kana window.
              There is no little ^ cursor, but  dont  worry  about  that.   DO  worry  about  the
              following conventions:

                Type "n " (n,space) to convert a ending 'n' to kana
                Press "'" for small-tsu. (type "chotto" as "cho'to")
                Press "-" for kana elongation. ("bi-ru")
                Press backspace to erase the last char.
                Press return to start the search.

              For  a pointy-clicky method of input, press the "kana search" button. This will pop
              up the kana seach window. (Press it again to remove the window.)  Press the kana(s)
              you want to search for. The chars you press will be shown next to the "kana search"
              button in the main search window.  When  you  have  the  phrase  ready,  press  the
              [Search] box.

              If  your kana recognition isn't all it should be, you can toggle romaji mode in the
              options popup (via "options" from the main window).   Additionally,  if  you  don't
              know  katakana,  but  want  to  translate  a katakana phrase, use the <=> button to
              toggle between hiragana and katakana.  Note that even if you are in katakana  input
              mode, it will print out your buttonpresses as hiragana.  This is because the search
              engine treats hiragana and katakana identically.

              If you make a mistake, press the <- button, or backspace, to erase the last char.

              The characters you press will appear at the bottom of the popup, and  also  on  the
              main  search  window  next to the kana search button. As noted above, if you make a
              mistake typing, use the <- button on the kana window to  erase,  or  the  backspace
              key.

       KANJI SEARCH

              You now have a multiple ways to look up Kanji.

       4-corner Kanji search

              If  you  want to find a kanji by shape, press the kanji search button on the search
              window. This will bring up the kanji search window.  Press it again to  remove  the
              kanji search window.

              This window employes the "4-corner method" of lookup.  The 4-corner method has lots
              of strange rules to it. I strongly recommend that you  read  the  description  that
              comes  in  the kanjidic document file. It is impossible for me to cover all details
              here.

              In brief, you have to press each corner of the center box, and select  one  of  the
              ten  elements from the top row, that best matches that corner of the kanji you want
              to look up. For those already  familiar  with  the  4-corner  method,  the  "blank"
              element  is  an  alias  for  the  first  element.  There are still only 10 possible
              positions.

              Press the paragraph button (backwards 'P') when you are ready to search.

              For those NOT already familiar with the 4-corner method... unfortunately, it sounds
              easy,  but  it  is  really  horribly  difficult,  and  I  again  refer  you  to the
              documentation that comes with the kanjidic dictionary file. Look for "kanjidic.doc"

       SKIP Kanji search

              Pressing the "Kanji SKIP search" button, will  bring  up  the  SKIP  window.   This
              window has directions on it already. Follow the directions to define what the kanji
              looks like.

       Kanji cut-n-paste lookup

              For ELECTRONIC lookup... if you view Japanese  text  online  with  a  program  like
              "kterm",  you  can  now select a single kanji in kterm, and paste it into a special
              "drop target" in the search window. It is to the far right of  the  "kanji"  search
              button.

              If  you highlight multiple characters, kdrill will now only look for an exact match
              of all characters you paste in. (up to 4  chars).   Multi-char  matching  will  NOT
              WORK, unless you have downloaded the additional dictionary, "edict"

              Note:  There is a BUG in some versions of netscape 4.x. If you are viewing kanji in
              a frame, you can seemingly highlight a character, but it will  not  cut-n-paste  to
              kdrill,  or  anywhere  else.  If this occurs, use right-click to "open frame in new
              window", where you will be able to use cut-n-paste.  Cut-n-paste from netscape  was
              also improved in version 5.9.6

       MATCH SIMILAR KANJI

              If  you  have  a  kanji already showing in the search window, and you are using the
              'edict' dictionary, you can search the  large  dictionary  for  occurences  of  the
              current kanji. Press the "match" button next to the kanji display.

       What are all those letters?

              The  top  row; "G, F, #", all refer to the basic indexes that are shown in the mail
              kdrill window. They stand for "Grade, Frequency, and Index #", respectively.

              H denotes the index in the "Halperin" dictionary

              N denotes the index in the "Nelson" dictionary

              Ux denotes the "Unicode" of the kanji. It is Ux to make it stand out  as  the  only
              one  that  expects  input  in  Hexadecimal.  This  is  because  that is the way the
              dictionary has it.

              For all windows with the little ^ in them, you can change  the  values.   When  you
              press  return  or  enter  in them, kdrill will attempt to find a match for what you
              just entered. If it can find no match, it will blank out all fields displayed.

              You can use this jump-to-index feature in the main window too.  However,  the  main
              window  will keep any restrictions you might have while doing the search (limits by
              usefile, grade, or frequency limit).

              The search window ignores any restrictions on the main  window,  and  searches  the
              entire on-line dictionary.

KEYBOARD ACCELERATORS

       Almost everything has a keyboard shortcut in kdrill.

           Key                               Action
         1,2,3,4,5                  Make a guess
         Shift+(123456+)            Change grade levels used
         c                          (C)heat
         C                          Super(C)heat
         e                          Guess (e)nglish definision
         k                          Guess which (k)anji fits
         m                          Guess which kana (m)eaning fits
         E                          Quiz on (E)nglish
         K                          Quiz on (K)anji
         M                          Quiz on kana (M)eaning
         l                          popup (l)earn window
         n                          (n)ext char, IF in learn window
         o                          Toggle in-(o)rder drill
         O                          Bring up (O)ptions window
         p                          Go back to (p)revious
         Control+q                  (Q)uit kdrill
         u                          Toggle (u)sefile usage.
         s                          (S)earch for a Kanji
         T                          Timer start/stop
         x                          clear missed count

       Additionally, the Sun keyboard "Find" (F19) and "Props" (F13) keys are bound to the search
       and options windows, respectively.

CONFIGURATION DETAILS

       kdrill checks for a file by the name of .kanjiusefile in the current  directory,  although
       this name can be changed either with the '-usefile' option, or in a resource file.

       kdrill  also  checks for a logfile, named kdrill.log by default, in the current directory.
       This can be changed with the -logfile option, or in a resource  file.  See  "LOGFILES  AND
       MISSED KANJI", below.

       kdrill  uses  a  file  called  "kanjidic"  (which  does not come in the source package) to
       interpret many of the various 16-bit kanji chars in the kanji24  font  supplied  with  the
       X11R5  distribution.  This  file should be in a place accessible to all users. Normally it
       would be in /usr/local/lib or somewhere similar.

       kanjidic subdivides its entries into grade levels, and frequency ratings. Grade levels are
       similar  to  school grade levels, but more compressed. For kdrill's purposes, grade levels
       start at 1, and increase to 6. There are many kanji that do not have a grade level, due to
       their  infrequency of use, or other reasons. These are denoted by the "+" character in the
       grade select window.

       The user can restrict the range of kanji to drill on in different, yet  compatible,  ways.
       The  first  way  is  to  make  a ".kanjiusefile" with a an explicit list of desired kanji.
       (described above in "USEFILES"),

       Changes you make to the "Grade Select" window or the "Frequency Range" section will not do
       anything  until  you  supply the correct match to the current drill-question (or press the
       english/kana toggle button).

       Keep in mind that the xfd font tool and other applications may refer to  kanji  characters
       by  a hexadecimal number. You may enter a hexadecimal number by starting it with "0x". For
       example, "0x315c".  To maintain compatibility with the dictionary,  the  kdrill  "usefile"
       expects  hexadecimal input, not decimal input. Similarly, the logfile also stores kanji in
       hexadecimal format. This makes it easy to use a log file of kanji you  have  missed  as  a
       usefile, for repeated drilling.

LOGFILES AND MISSED KANJI

       Every  time  you  guess  incorrectly,  kdrill  makes  a note. It later will give you extra
       practice on ones you missed, if you are playing in random order.  It will  only  repeat  a
       missed  character  about  25%  of the time.  The more you miss a particular character, the
       more kdrill will repeat showing it to you.

       You can store a list of your incorrect answers by pressing the "Log" button.  kdrill  will
       then  write  out all the kanji characters it thinks you do not know into the logfile. This
       will erase any information previously in that  logfile.  kdrill  will  also  automatically
       update  the logfile when it quits The next time you start up kdrill, it will automatically
       read in the logfile, if it exists.

       The logfile is named "kdrill.log", by default. You may change the name of the logfile with
       the -logfile option.

       It is  a good idea to press "Log" just before quitting kdrill.  That way, it will remember
       which characters you are weak on, for the next time you play. It  will  then  go  back  to
       those  characters  from  time  to time, if you play in "random" order. If you do not press
       "Log", kdrill will not save a record of what you have missed.

       Alternatively, you can use the logfile as a usefile. kdrill will then  only  quiz  you  on
       those  kanji  you missed. If you choose to do this, it is a good idea to copy the log file
       over to a different file. That way, you can make a  logfile  for  your  new  usefile.  For
       example, in UNIX;

       cp kdrill.log kdrill.usefile kdrill -usefile kdrill.usefile

       The total number of missed entries is shown in the main window. If there are just too many
       for your comfort (learning new kanji can be difficult!)  you can ERASE THE COUNT with your
       backspace or delete key.

KANJIDIC and EDICT

       The  dictionary  for kdrill, kanjidic, is currently available where it originated, via ftp
       from ftp.monash.edu.au, or from a mirror in the U.S. at ftp.uwtc.washington.edu.  Likewise
       for the "edict" dictionary.  There are many other mirror sites mentioned on the kdrill web
       page. (See below)

       At the monash site, both the dictionary  and  this  program  can  currently  be  found  in
       /pub/nihongo

       This program's primary ftp site is now ftp.bolthole.com.

       There is also an official kdrill URL;

        http://www.bolthole.com/kdrill/

              This currently shows you some screen-shots, and mentions the ftp sites.

BUGS

       "kanjidic"  isn't  perfect. There are "incomplete" entries, missing either English or kana
       translations. There are also entries consisting of "See  Nxxxx",  which  isn't  really  an
       improvement.  Note  that  you  can  now  use the search window to follow those "See Nxxxx"
       references!  [ Just search for that Nxxx, as if doing a search for English ]

       Likewise, this man page may be incomplete!

AUTHOR

       Philip P. Brown

       (Who has finally taken a format Japanese lesson! Which helped a lot,
        but am now back on the slow "self-taught" track. sigh! shikatta ga nai)

COPYRIGHT

       This program was originally created while I was a student at the University of California.
       However, this program was developed entirely by myself, on my own computer, not related to
       any classwork. I retain sole right to this program.

       I, Philip Brown, hereby give permission to use, and/or modify this code, so long as it  it
       not  sold  for  profit,  and  I  am  given  credit  somewhere in the code. Unrelated works
       originally derived from this code are not covered by this restriction (although  it  would
       be nice to mention me!)

NOTICE

       Send donations, postcards, muffins, letters of commendation, to

              Philip Brown
              5353 Josie Ave
              Lakewood, CA 90713
              USA

       [ I HAVE received some nice email, and more is always welcome. No postcards,
        though. Sniff... Although I DID actually receive a small donation.
        Yaaay! I can buy more manga now! :-> ]

       Bug  reports  always "welcome". However, please ensure that you can reproduce it, so I can
       fix it for you.  Also, be sure to let me know your machine type, and version of kdrill you
       are using.

       Philip Brown

       phil@bolthole.com

       http://www.bolthole.com/

       http://www.bolthole.com/kdrill/

       SEE ALSO:

       ftp://ftp.bolthole.com/kdrill/zidian.README  for  information  on  how  to  use kdrill for
       Chinese learning