ONE EXCELLENT BIT OF HELP WHEN LEARNING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

SVT 1.6 fixes 1.5 !!!

The readme included w/ the distribution:

Program name:
SVT
Phillip Blair's Spanish Vocabulary Tutor
Version 1.6

Philosophy:
Foreign language vocabulary practise through question and answer self testing.

Requirements:
For running the included binary:i386 Linux box that'll run ELF biaries.
For compiling the included source:gdbm & ncurses.

Installation:
Explode the archive in your usual spot(/usr/local/lib/), copy the binary to the appropriate place (/usr/games or /usr/local/bin), copy the .spanishrc file to your home directory and modify it to point to the directory where you want the program to put it's data files (make sure you leave off the trailing slash), make sure the directory exists (make it if it doesen't), and run the program! Quite simple really! I opted not to include any vocabulary so you'll have to put it in yourself.

Compiling:
In case anyone needs to make up a binary...(pay very close attention I shall only say this once..)

1. step 1.Go to the directory where you exploded the binary
   
2. step 2.Type "make" then press enter.
   

In (unlikely) case of problem compiling:
Some time ago, I was making up another linux box & accidentally installed a piece of the latest slackware (3.1) onto my existing system. It just HAPPENED to be one of the few critical pieces that had been changed from my version (2.0) which had been working flawlessly all along & which I had no intention of upgraging...I couldn't fix it in a day,so I was forced to upgrade...my point is that the location of the ncurses headers is different in slackware 3.1 so if you have problems compiling that might be it (it was for me) change the #include<ncurses/curses.h> in my .h files to the appropriate thing & that will clear up that problem.

Instructions For Use:
I opted not to include any vocabulary so you'll have to put it in yourself, this is really more in keeping with the spirit of the program. Hit 'e' in the main menu and it will ask you for the spanish,the english,and then ask for verification OR if you want to get out of database expansion - you can at this point by hitting 'q'. Back at the main menu, you can also practise the vocabulary you've entered by hitting `w', or have a look at the nouns you've enter'd into your database by hitting 'r' (you can get out of that too by hitting 'q'). But really,it is every bit as intuitive as it looks. Especially if you use Lynx (...!).

• Release notes
  • From this release (1.6): Stupid idiot like me! I left something out of the package on the last release. the VERY critical, all-important configuration file! My most sincere apologies to anyone burned by this most grevoius error.
  • From the 1.5 release: This is the FINAL workable version of the first spantut. It includes an updated user interface that I'm going to be putting in future (textmode) versions.
  • From the 1.4 release: Fixed a bug that wouldn't allow you to view more than the first 100 words in the database. I'm now comfortable with SVT as a very basic, very little (yet surprisingly helpful) tool. I hope You find it so as well. Next stop 2.0 !!!
  • From the 1.2 release: Changed the docs a little, smoothed them out a bit, including changing one of the recommended locations for the binary's final resting place. After deep perusal of the fsstnd doc this one appears to be the right place. Massaged the program's "feel" a little bit, y'know.. beeps here, doesen't beep there... Cleaned up the source too.
  • From the 1.0 release: I was going through a `teach yourself spanish' book which was going...not well! This was my-I think-my third attempt at this particular one and my umpteenth attempt in total. I realised my main problem was NOT the basic structure of the language per se,but rather getting comfortably acquainted with the overwhelming number of these nasty little co-relations-like `gato' means `cat' and `apple' means `mansana'... whatever! Being someone who has a supreme belief in the fact that things can be made to work better if you add `intelligence' to them,I proceeded to automate the process. This program is the result so far. By the way, before I forget... If you, you know, have a small change to the program for a specific application, or whatever, write me. Let's talk! I'm not guaranteeing anything... but bounce it off me anyway..
• Version notes
  • From the 1.0 release: I was going through a `teach yourself spanish' book which was going...not well! This was my-I think-my third attempt at this particular one and my umpteenth attempt in total. I realised my main problem was NOT the basic structure of the language per se,but rather getting comfortably acquainted with the overwhelming number of these nasty little co-relations-like `gato' means `cat' and `apple' means `mansana'...whatever! Being someone who has a supreme belief in the fact that things can be made to work better if you add `intelligence' to them,I proceeded to automate the process. This program is the result so far. By the way,before I forget...If you,you know,have a small change to the program for a specific application, or whatever, write me. Let's talk! I'm not guaranteeing anything... but bounce it off me anyway.. This started out as a personal thing in c++... incidentally, I worked on that version for about three months and didn't get very far. I tried re-writing it in plain C and was done in four weeks (minus last week-I was sick) Word! Anyway,I decided I wasn't going to bother with the foreign character set so the version number will start at 1.0. The decision was influenced by one thing- the fact that it is a complete program now,albeit small,but we do have a solid working program now... so 1.0 it is! There are several things I want to do in terms of functionality which I haven't had the time to get into yet.We have the rudiments of these tricks in the framework right now. It'll get more powerful in subsequent releases. This prog. should actually be good for other languages as well...I imagine...I wouldn't know, I'm still mono-lingual... (addendum- for the most part!)

Copyright:
Read the file `COPYING'.

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