Monday, October 31, 2011

Referenced Theo. Expressions Updated to 2011-10-31 Version

The Referenced Theo. Expressions files available for download have been updated. They are available for download from the Referenced Theo. Expressions (Chinese + Pinyin + English) Downloads and Referenced Theo. Expressions (Chinese + Cantonese Romanisation + English) Downloads pages. These files are meant to be relatively extensive lists of theo. expressions as they have been found to be rendered in the Chinese publications. Versions sorted by English and versions sorted by romanization are both available.


The current version is now dated 2011-10-31. It contains 14,041 entries (+5766 alternate headings), compared to the 13,183 entries (+5064 alternate headings) that were in the previous version. For the Mandarin RTE data, Pleco, Wenlin, ChinaScribe, DICT, StarDict (for ColorDict, etc.), and iSilo data files are now available in addition to the PDF files. (We have not been able to make the StarDict data files work with the StarDict program itself, but they may work with ColorDict and other programs that read the StarDict format.)


Re this update, the one who produces the RTE said:

...it includes some scientific words and names from the November Awake! that bros might now want to look up.


...

Besides the November words, and a bunch of other additions and corrections, other improvements are:

  1. The PDF and iSilo files had an introduction with date and statistics, but other formats (ChinaScribe, Wenlin, Pleco, etc) could not. This inconsistency has now been fixed by giving RTE a Chinese name and an entry for itself in the dictionary, so if you're using a format that has no introduction then you can look up "RTE" to see it. (The introduction's wording has also been simplified.)
  2. Fixed a bug in the scripts which was omitting most of the BP course words from the PDFs (although they were counted in the statistics). The other formats were not affected by this bug.
  3. Improved the Cantonese romanisation by referring to a newer version of Cameron Wong's secular Cantonese dictionary (not yet online but he let me have a copy).

The old Submitting New Expressions subheading of both the Mandarin and the Cantonese download pages has been changed to the below in order to encourage more submissions and requests:

Submitting or Requesting New Expressions

If you come across a Chinese theo. expression that is not yet listed in the RTE material and you would like to submit or request it for inclusion in future versions of the RTE material, please email me about it and include as many of these pieces of information as you are reasonably able to:

  • Chinese characters (Simplified, Traditional, or both)

  • pinyin (zhèyàng or zhe4yang4 are both okay) [Mandarin page]

  • romanization, including type (e.g. Yale, Sidney Lau, etc.) [Cantonese page]

  • English equivalent

  • source (which theo. publication, page, paragraph)

Bookmarks have been added to the PDF files, and PDF annotation has been enabled on them, so “LN-A” (“Link Navigation-Annotation”) is included in their filenames. See the PDF Link Navigation page and the PDF Annotation (Notes & Highlighting) page for more information.


Note that the current version of Pleco for iPhone / iPod Touch / iPad now supports flashcards and user-created dictionaries. So, the RTE Pleco Instructions file now contains instructions for installing the RTE Pleco files in Pleco running on these devices.


As a reminder, note that the Referenced Theo. Expressions (Chinese + Pinyin + English) Web Lookup and Referenced Theo. Expressions (Chinese + Cantonese Romanization + English) Web Lookup pages are now available as well. Rather than containing download links to the RTE data files, they each contain a web form that can be used to look up RTE information.


Thanks go out to the ones who helped to produce this set of resources.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Bearing Witness Bk. XLP-iPhone-A5 Size LN-A 3-Line Material for Ch. 13 Posted

3-line pinyin and Sidney Lau XLP-iPhone-A5 size files with LN-A (LinkNav and annotation (notes & highlighting)) for Chapter 13 of the Bearing Witness book are now available for download from the Bearing Witness Book (3-Line, XLP-iPhone-A5, LN-A) page.


To further explain how the XLP-iPhone-A5 files may work well on a variety of mobile devices, the following paragraphs are now included on the Bearing Witness Book (3-Line, XLP-iPhone-A5, LN-A) page:

While the regular files use letter size as the paper size, these files named with “XLP-iPhone-A5” use A5 as the paper size, and are especially suited for use on devices such as the iPhone, the iPod touch, and other devices with similarly sized screens, such as Android phones. (See the 3-Line Material on the iPhone and the iPod touch page for instructions on how to use these files on an iPhone or an iPod touch.)

The XLP-iPhone-A5 files should also be a good fit on 6" (15.2 cm) screen Kindles and other similarly sized devices, as well as on tablets with 7" (17.8 cm) screens, as long as these devices have PDF support. (Note that landscape orientation may work best, as explained below.) Some may prefer to use these files on larger mobile devices like the Kindle DX or the iPad as well.

The relevant folders at the 3lines.org site contain an HTML file with a link to the Bearing Witness Book (3-Line, XLP-iPhone-A5, LN-A) page.


Related links:

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Bearing Witness Bk. A4/Letter Size 3-Line Material for Ch. 13 Posted

A4/letter size 3-line material for Chapter 13 of the Bearing Witness book is now available for download from the 3lines.org site. Simplified and Traditional Chinese Mandarin pinyin and Traditional Chinese Cantonese Jyutping, Sidney Lau, and Yale material is available.


Additionally, the Simplified (CHS) Mandarin pinyin files are also available in “black” versions, which only use black to render the material rather than using blue and red for some of it like the regular files.


At the 3lines.org home page, just answer the Witness-testing questions (no commas), click on the bs (Book Study) graphic, and click through to your desired type of file.

Thursday, October 06, 2011

Steve Jobs 1955-2011

...is the title of a new post at tiandi.info. Here’s the text from the news feed:

He helped us in the Chinese field too, in many insanely great ways.

To obtain the login information for tiandi.info, request e-mail notification of news regarding available resources, or if you have any questions or comments, you may e-mail me at waynerj@shaw.ca, providing information such as what group or congregation you’re with, who referred you to this site, etc.

Monday, October 03, 2011

“Coasting on Baby-Talk Chinese”

...is the title of a new post at tiandi.info. Here’s the text from the news feed:

Gūgu gàga? Let us grow up and learn to ride our “bicycles” well instead!

To obtain the login information for tiandi.info, request e-mail notification of news regarding available resources, or if you have any questions or comments, you may e-mail me at waynerj@shaw.ca, providing information such as what group or congregation you’re with, who referred you to this site, etc.