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PyKanjiCard v1.3
by Eduardo Aguiar (aguiar@users.sourceforge.net)

1. Introduction PyKanjiCard is a flash card program to aid learning japanese written words, in hiragana, katakana and kanji. You can select words composed only by characters you already known. It is written in Python using Pygtk.
2. Licensing PyKanjiCard is licensing under GNU Public License (GPL). See http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html for further information.

PyKanjiCard uses a modified version of the EDICT and KANJIDIC files. These files are the property of the Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group at Monash University, and are used in conformance with the Group's licence. See http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/edict.html for further information.

3. Installing it
You need pygtk (http://www.pygtk.org) and python (http://www.python.org) in order to run PyKanjiCard. After installing them, download pykanjicard package, and install using the following command:

python setup.py install

4. How it works
It reads a modified version of edict file called 'pykanjicard.dict', made up of two sections: '[known_chars]' where you define all characters you already know (hiragana, katakana and kanji as well). '[dictionary]' contains entries, its furigana, where applicable, and an English definition.

When PyKanjiCard starts, it reads the dictionary, getting only words whose characteres are in '[known_chars]' section. It is useful for kanji students, who can progress, knowning new words composed only by characteres he or she already knows.

5. Using it
Run pykanjicard.py. There are three options you can use:

   -h or --hiragana     Include hiragana characters into 'known_chars' list
   -k or --katakana     Include katakana characters into 'known_chars' list
   -a or --all          Load all dictionary entries, ignoring 'known_chars'
   -r or --restrict     Load only entries containing either hiragana or
                        katakana and at least one character from 'known_chars'.
                        Used with either -h or -k

PyKanjiCard starts showing a Japanese word. You must try to figure out what it means, and how to spell it. Then you click on 'Information' button to show the furigana (spelling tips) and its English definition. If you were right, click on 'Yes' button, otherwise, click on 'No' button. In both cases, a new question will be show.

6. pykanjiedit.py
pykanjiedit.py helps edition of 'pykanjicard.dict', making easy to add known_chars through copy and paste.

7. edict.py
edict.py parses an edict dictionary at current directory and generates pykanjicard.dict. Using the options '-h' and '-k', you may add hiragana and katakana characteres to the '[known_chars]' section.

8. About me
I am Eduardo Aguiar, a beginner student of Japanese. As so, I have made this program mainly as a help for myself. As soon as it was stable, I decided to share it with other people.

I work as freelancer mainly in C++ and Python, and develop software since 1986. You can e-mail me at aguiar@users.sourceforge.net.

Any questions, suggestions or development requests are welcomed.