WJiten v0.2

What is WJiten?

WJiten is a Japanese <-> English dictionary program I've written to help in my learning of Japanese vocabulary. I've not found many modern dictionary programs for Windows, and none with the features I wanted. This project has also given me an excuse to learn C#, Microsoft's new programming language utilizing the .Net Frameworks (info at www.microsoft.com/net). It is freeware for educational use, but I maintain the source copyright and this ReadMe.htm file must accompany any distribution of WJiten.exe.

Requirements

Microsoft Windows 2000 or Windows XP
Microsoft's Japanese Global IME (On Windows XP, open Control Panels->Regional and Language Options->Languages->Details->Add and select Japanese).
WJiten is written in C# and so requires the Microsofts .Net Framework 1.0 (available at windowsupdate.microsoft.com).
Jim Breen's EDICT dictionary file (available at www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/edict.html). EDICT is the actual dictionary file that WJiten uses, and a special thanks to Jim Breen for such a useful educational tool.

Setup

Install the required components above.
Download EDICT from the link above.
Start WJiten.exe and select the "Options" menu, then select "Preferences...", click the browse button and select the EDICT file you just downloaded.
Hit the "OK" button and you're ready to go!

Note: Use the Japanese Global IME to enter japanese into the search box.

Features

History list - This is the main feature of WJiten. It keeps track of the words you look up and at any time you can double-click on a word in the history list and it will look up the word again. This great for people like me with a poor short-term memory ;-). You can also save the history list by right-clicking in the history window and choosing "Save...". This brings up the save file dialog. I recommend this for saving vocabulary lists. You can also load vocabulary lists by right-clicking in the history window and selecting "Open...".
Export list - Another feature I use extensively is the export list. The export list allows you to save a vocabulary list for export to GakuSoft's KingKanji software (available at www.gakusoft.com). It's a great Kanji study program with versions for PC, PalmPC and PocketPC. Add words to your export list by right-clicking on a highlighted word in the search results windows and selecting "Add to exports". After you've added all the words to the list you want to export, click on the "File" menu and select "Export...". This will open the export list editor which will allow you to review and remove any entries and finally export the list in KingKanji format. I recommend not more that 25 or 30 entries per list.

Known Issues

The search algorithm needs a speed improvement.
Alternate dictionary not yet supported. I've started work on supported an additional dictionary file, such as COMPDIC or ENAMDICT, but this feature is not yet implemented.
"Exact" & "Begins with" searches only work for kanji.

Future Work

I plan to continue working on WJiten (time permitting), and will polish it and add features as I find need for them (suggestions welcome).

My current "To do" list:

Implement additional dictionary file support.
Improve search speed and decrease memory usage.
Fix "Exact" & "Begins with" searches to work with kana and english.
Add an actual help system.
Japanese localized version of WJiten.

Support

If you find any bugs or have any other comments, send email to Doug Carter at adougca@yahoo.com

Last update: 7/21/2002