tisfeng/Easydict

🚀 Feature Request: Transcriptions for non-Latin script languages

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#458 opened on Mar 18, 2024

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enhancementgood first issue

Description

Please confirm the following:

  • I have carefully read the README
  • I have searched through the issues page and didn't find a similar feature request.(Including issue that has been closed)
  • Easydict has been upgraded to the latest version
  • I understand and agree to the above, and understand that the project maintainer has limited energy, issues that do not follow the rules may be ignored or closed directly

Feature description

Hey, Tisfeng!

I have been using Easydict to dabble in Chinese and Japanese. And find it super useful when Easydict not only does OCR and provides text-to-speach and translation, but also shows transcription for the characters of these languages.

However. (And the following concerns mostly Google and Bing services, as Youdao only shows Pinyin readings for two-character Chinese words, and others do not seem to provide any transcriptions at all.) However — the problem is there is a strict limit on how long a query would be provided with a transcription. I've experimented a bit, and as of now it seems to work as follows:

Japanese: Google doesn't give transcriptions at all. Bing does, but for queries of up to 7 characters long. 8-char long phrase would be shown without a reading.

Chinese: Google works for up to 4 characters. 5 and more — no Pinyin. Bing, again, up to 7. 8 and more — no such luck.

Use case

I do understand that providing transcriptions for long passages within Easydict's window would clutter the interface considerably. But still, 15- or 20-char phrases — do seem adequate to me. And at least having an option in settings to enable it would be super-super useful to me. And, again, as it works now — seems to be highly illogical: 4-char limit here, 7-char there (and 7 seems to be especially weird for Chinese with two-character words and 4- and 8-character names for things and concepts).

Please, pretty please, do consider looking into this.

Thank you so very much for your wonderful app and your hard work!

ja 2a 🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨 ja 3a 🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨 ja 1a 🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨 zh 1a 🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨 zh 2a 🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨 zh 3a 🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨 zh 4a

Contributor guide

Tech stack
swift
Domain
desktop
Issue type
feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
1-2 days
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
fresh
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
clear
Prerequisites
Swift programmingmacOS app developmentREST API knowledgeEasydict codebase
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
60
Research direction
Investigate the code in Easydict that handles transcriptions for Google and Bing translation services. Identify where the character limits are enforced (likely in the query formatting or response parsing). Consider adding a user setting to adjust the limit. Also check if other services like Youdao have similar limits and if they can be extended. Look at the relevant files in the repository, likely under the translation service handlers.