I just created a “Known Issues” page that you can now see up top here where I will keep a running list of things that I need to fix. Thanks.

Hello all,

I got a whole bunch of emails asking for traditional character support, which I fully intended to release soon but didnt have time to code when I was rushing to get something out for the FF3 release. I had some time in a trip ride back from a business trip so I coded it up for you all. I guess alot more people use traditional characters than I thought. So traditional characters are back up and working now.

Also for you really ambitious people who want to learn/display both character sets, in the options dialog under the general tab, you can tick “Show Traditional + Simplified Characters for each entry.” and it will display both versions no matter which characters the word you are looking up is in.  I also cleaned up the prefs dialog a bit. You can find the update in the blue box here to the left. Enjoy!

UPDATE: Some people are having problems finding the blue download box (no flash installed??) so here are the links to the files:

Chinese: http://www.box.net/shared/knhft15s0s
Japanese: http://www.box.net/shared/7c65obqgog

Download them to some location then drag and drop them to FF3 to install

I was hoping to have some more time before the mozilla guys released Firefox 3, but today was the day, so yesterday I took the day off to get something ready by day 1 (and to play some MGS4). Happy to say I got the main issues worked out and have a usable version to release.

Some new things you will see added is the new icons, now a smiley blue icon, and the new options dialog, both a la polarcloud, thank you!

This release doesnt have some of the features I’ve really been wanting to add like:

1. Saving words into a personal vocab file in the sidebar or integrating it with a website for vocab study, but I might have something in the works coming up for that.
2. Online dictionary lookup (working with someone on this) instead of a local file which will decrease plugin size and allow the dictionary to grow with time.
3. A feature to highlight words on webpages that are already in your vocab folder so that when you see them it will trigger to you that you should know them.

Anyways, dispite some rough edges still left to file off, I have submitted the workable version over at the mozilla add-ons page that will go live for auto-update as soon as it gets out of the sandbox reviewing process, in the meantime you can use plugin on my “box” here to the left, so enjoy, and once again I would like to thank all who have donated! It was definately the inspiration for me to get this out in sync with the new Firefox release, so this is for you guys!

ps. there are updated dictionary files to install with the new perapera-kun that you can get from polarcloud’s website: http://www.polarcloud.com/rikaichan/ (scroll down and install the dictionary of your choice)

pps. this is only working with simplified characters at the moment…a temp fix will be released on this site very soon to fix that, email me if you want to be notified when its released

I just installed RC1 and indeed the plugins do not work even though they were fine thru the beta. I am working on this and my goal is to have it working by the time Firefox3 is released. So maybe 2 weeks. もうちょっと我慢してください。

Thank you to all you have generously donated to this project!! I have been working every weekend on developing the next version which has involved an education in how the whole Firefox plugin framework works so I can get some of the more inherent bugs fixed while I rewrite this from scratch for Firefox 3. But all is going well. Thanks again for the donations, I got an ACIDMAN dvd I’ve been wanting for awhile (^^)/

Not enough to push out an update, but for those you really want to use this with the Firefox 3 Betas, you can download compatible versions in my “Box” on the left here. Uninstall the old versions first. Enjoy!

PS: Thank you to those who have already donated! I’ll be working hard this weekend on getting a new version of this out soon!

Is Chinese or Japanese Perapera-kun worth a cup of coffee?

My philosophy toward free software is that if I met the person who coded some program that really helped me out or I used alot, sure I would offer to buy him a coffee or a beer for his troubles.

So if this has helped you at to some degree in your studies or your profession (I know more than a few people who use this almost full time in their jobs) I encourage you to donate the cost of a cup of coffee by clicking on the donation link on the left of the screen.

Besides making my efforts feel appreciated, this will greatly motivate me to get the updates I want to do faster and write some other plug-ins and language related software I have been thinking of creating. Thank you.

I’m excited to finally be working on a new version and here is a list of major changes I will be implementing:

• Can save vocabulary words to a sidebar for easy viewing & reviewing
• Choose example sentences to be saved with your word
• Saved words can be highlighted when you view other websites
• Redesigned settings dialog thats easier to use
• Easier way to save words, no more CTRL key confict!
• Possible integration with a Chinese/Japanese study site
• Better looking pop-up box
• A sounds option to pronounce those tones on the words

Wow embarrassing how old that last post was but alot has happened in the past year including moving back to America and a career change. My new career and job has sucked up all the my time but now I have settled in and can work on my side projects again.

Anyways, here’s the new. I will release a minor update of the plug-in so that it works with Firefox 3 this weekend. The next update will be huge and I will be devoting time to it regularly now so the update will come in a reasonable time frame.

I thank all the people who have downloaded, reviewed, commented and sent me feedback. I have had some good dialogs with many of you, and have a really good feel for what will be changed in the next version.

Here are the changes:

• More entries in the dictionary
• Faster Search (needed because of bigger dictionary)
• You can choose “Show More Results” in the options dialog to yield more results (often redundant, OFF by default).
• Press when over a character to display character information about it.(very much thanks to Imron Alston for compiling the info from the huge file)
• Now works with Simplified AND Traditional characters, and will detect automatically, so no longer need to choose anything in the options dialog.
• Fixed newline character not being outputted upon export
• Made the accidental exporting when trying to copy and hitting a little better, but still not perfect

Enjoy! https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/3349/

I have been recently working on updating the dictionary and search for better results. I have to to a place now where there are good results and am about done and ready to release. This will the be the last update for a long time so if there is anything anyone wants changed/included please leave a comment. Main changes are:

• Rewrote search code so it should be about twice as fast now.
• Updated the dictionary file, so now theres more entries (hence the faster search was needed).
• Traditional characters are now supported in browsing and exporting, just choose traditional hanzi in the options menu.(simplified is the default)
• Added the option to see more results displayed, by choosing “Show More Results” in the options dialog. (off by default)
• Stripped out the japanese kanji related info.
• In place of that japanese related info window, if you press it will magnify the hanzi.

Some people have complained about the japanese kanji window being removed, I dont know why, most the information was irrelevant, but if its something everyone wants back I will put it back..leave a comment.

OR if you want the same thing with chinese character information there is the UNIHAN dictionary which holds that information but is 30MB in size…so it would make the extension huge. It contains alot of information that has to do with Japanese and Korean so if someone wants to make a processed version of that file with only the chinese info cherry picked, and sent it to me I can implement that. Or I could try to make it as an optional add-on (much like the names dictionary for the japanese version). Up to you…I dont personally need so I dont plan to add it.

Any other feature requests ?? Leave a comment.