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An open source web-based flashcard studying system

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Re: An open source web-based flashcard studying system

#81
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious which aspects of Anki you find to be "very, very dated"? I haven't used Anki for very long, nor have I looked into any advanced-looking features, so perhaps I haven't run into those aspects you were referring to.

sure why does the app give me a total number of cards to do? why not always present the card I'm most likely to forget and leave me to decide when to stop? why is it so hard to understand the concept of a note vs a card? why aren't there more ways to have cards be updated over time, to subscribe to updates? why does the app cost $25 on iOS? why can't I execute JavaScript within fields if my html/css is rendered in a…

> why does the app give me a total number of cards to do? why not always present the card I'm most likely to forget and leave me to decide when to stop?

You aren’t under any obligation to continue learning until you’re done with all cards. The number of cards to learn is customizable.

> why is it so hard to understand the concept of a note vs a card?

It’s not that hard, but I guess it makes the learning curve a bit harder. Why it’s done this way? I guess to provide more flexibility. Is flexibility lacking in modern apps? Yes, absolutely. So in that sense this is indeed a dated feature.

> why does the app cost $25 on iOS?

Why is it “dated”? Also - why not? You’re free to use free desktop and web versions. Paying for ios app is a way to support the developer.

> why can't I execute JavaScript

Dunno about this one. What’s your use case? Can’t theg plugins cover it?

Re: An open source web-based flashcard studying system

#83
post #4

After skimming the site and code: Do not use this, just use anki. Anki has a free web version (anki web), and has free-as-in-AGPL desktop apps as well. Maybe one day this software will be comparable to anki, but right now it's missing spaced-repetition (which is the only thing that really makes large decks usable), and practically all the other features of anki.

Anki is really not that great. All the implementations I’ve tried are ugly as hell and have crappy UX.

It’s also over complicated for something as simple as flash cards.

Re: An open source web-based flashcard studying system

#86
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The project is still early in its development. Spaced repetition is something that has been recommended to me and has already been planned for the project from the beginning. The current flashcard implementation is not what it is intended to be in its final stage - it’s more of a showcase of initial functionality and a proving ground for building upon what other projects (like Anki) already offer. Anki web is an opti…

If your goal is to be simpler, and also more powerful, could you write down what that means? If your goal is to just poke around without a plan, or to just copy features without a unifying vision, it seems unlikely it ends up simpler or more powerful than anki. As far as I can tell, there's no vision written down anywhere, no list of things other systems got wrong but you'll get right, no insight into what needs to b…

> no vision written down anywhere

Shouldn't this be a deck of cards?!

I echo your sentiment. I also agree the Anki is a bit of a morass. A streamlined UI for creating Anki cards could be nice.

Re: An open source web-based flashcard studying system

#87

Firstly, I wish you all the luck; this is a genuinely useful category of software and there simply aren't enough alternatives out there. That being said, the big hurdle with SRS software is ... lack of content. I wrote one too but gave up on it because creating the content takes too long. What I'd like to see someone create is an open and free wikipedia-type-everyone-can-contribute-content project specifically for fl…

It's likely that we add the ability to import from Anki, I'll also add the ability to import from other services that act as flashcard repositories. I've seen a few of them in my research.

However, the project is more focused on giving individuals the platform to create their own sets/import from elsewhere, rather than hosting a large repository.

Re: An open source web-based flashcard studying system

#88
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haven't yet seen this tool, but here's a quick answer. A few years ago, after skimming through the docs, I gave up on Anki because it seemed too complicated . I was using SuperMemo back when it was a DOS (and later Windows 3) application, I consider myself a fairly sophisticated user (e.g. I have a good expertise on LaTeX, even coauthored a textbook, I know Emacs very well, also authored a textbook), I've been a hobb…

I can relate to this. I had fond memory of SuperMemo on DOS and wrote a little terminal tool “lrn” inspired by it: https://github.com/krychu/lrn I acknowledge it’s simple, runs on terminal only and lacks bells and whistles. But this is also probably why I use it so much.

Does it allow you to use Anki decks?

Re: An open source web-based flashcard studying system

#89
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can relate to this. I had fond memory of SuperMemo on DOS and wrote a little terminal tool “lrn” inspired by it: https://github.com/krychu/lrn I acknowledge it’s simple, runs on terminal only and lacks bells and whistles. But this is also probably why I use it so much.

Does it allow you to use Anki decks?

Unfortunately not, “lrn” uses a very simple file format where each entry consists of three lines: question, answer, empty line. But I think it’d be a good idea to look into supporting Anki decks. I should do it some time. It’d be probably limited to decks that use text only.

Re: An open source web-based flashcard studying system

#90
I'm also building an Anki clone (sigh) that I'm calling "Github for flashcards".

>A free, open source, local-first, spaced repetition system that works offline, has p2p syncing, plugins, and first class support for collaboration.

https://github.com/AlexErrant/Pentive

Very much a WIP, completely unusable, but I recently made a video demoing the technical proof of concept. I plan on it being more or less Anki-compatible though, so there'll be cloze deletions, note types, etc.

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