Usability improvements (was: RE: [mnemosyne-proj-users] Sync error - Deleting same fact twice)

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Peter Bienstman

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May 24, 2018, 6:58:05 AM5/24/18
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Hi,

 

OK, I see what you mean with respect to the statistics. In that case, it’s cleaner if I for retention score and grade I simply add separate lines for the parent tags too, without the user having to do strange things with adding superfluous tags themselves J

 

With an option in ‘having all of these tags’, I not only meant in activate, but also in the card browser. That would solve your problem I think.

 

With respect to getting rid of saved sets and replacing everything by tags, I’m afraid I have to decline J . That would lose a lot of functionality. E.g., I have only a few saved sets, but each of them contain much more than 1 tag. Also, the same tag can be active in many saved sets.

 

In your collection, you have several hundred tags. Do you really want to be able to study them one by one in order? Apart from being very cumbersome to switch between these tags manually, it’s also not good for memory if you compartmentalise your reviews too much. Also, if you use saved sets to choose which new words you want to memorise, it’s probably much easier to use a few well-chosen saved sets (which can evolve over time), rather than having to scroll through an enormous list of tags.

 

Anyway, thanks for the feedback, it’s always helpful to know in what ways people use Mnemosyne that I didn’t consider!

 

Cheers,

 

Peter

 

From: mnemosyne-...@googlegroups.com <mnemosyne-...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of abaku...@arcor.de
Sent: 23 May 2018 23:15
To: mnemosyne-proj-users@googlegroups com <mnemosyne-...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [mnemosyne-proj-users] Sync error - Deleting same fact twice

 

Hello Peter,

I can not look at the "easiness" of a main1 tag, if there is a main1::sub tag (look at the attached screenshot) . There is no main tag called "Turkish", because of its sub tags.

No, I don't want to activate any cards. Or in other words: I don't want create a set of cards. I just want to select any tag in the cards browser (set a tick) and then select only those cards, which also have the tag "Starred".

Example: Select all cards that have the tags "Starred" AND "Turkish::Family". This would select all Turkish::Family cards, which are starred, so that I can edit, correct, verify or make them better.

In SQL you could just use the AND operator to get this result.
In the software this could be a checkbox, a search box or even a shortcut, if you want to keep the user interface simple.

You have mentioned the activate cards window. I think, you don't really need this menu, when you do your repetitions on your smartphone. It would be more convenient to have all tags to be card sets. A search feature on the smartphone to select sets or/and an order tags/sets (because a tag would be the same as a set) feature on the pc would be nice. The tag on top of this list would be the active cards set. Done! :) Guess what?! The next active set would be the second tag. :) You would even get a schedule feature for nothing. :)) The same order of sets/tags on the phone. And the best feature ever: "No more "creating tags" and afterwards  "creating card sets from tags". :)))

Hmmm... I really should make this a feature request, because I would get everything I have ever been hoping for. Except:  "Edit cards on smartphone" feature.

@Everybody please vote for this feature ;) :

https://mnemosyne.uservoice.com/forums/164265-general/suggestions/34332277-all-tags-should-be-card-sets

Have a good night! And thank you for this software!

Cheers,

Abakus

> Am 23.05.2018 10:04 schrieb Peter Bienstman <Peter.B...@UGent.be>:
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>>  
>>
>> What statistics of the “main” tag are you talking about? In the deck browser, the number next to the main tag will also include all the other cards from the subtags.
>>
>>  
>>
>> With respect to your other request, I’m guessing that what you want is on option in activate ‘having all of these tags’?
>>
>>  
>>
>> If so, feel free to add a feature request to uservoice, so that people can vote for it.
>>
>>  
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>>  
>>
>> Peter
>>
>>  
>>
>> From: abaku...@arcor.de <abaku...@arcor.de>
>> Sent: 22 May 2018 19:47
>> To: Peter Bienstman <Peter.B...@UGent.be>
>> Subject: RE: [mnemosyne-proj-users] Sync error - Deleting same fact twice
>>
>>  
>>
>> Hi Peter,
>>
>> thank you for the advice. I have added those double tags on purpose, because I wanted to see the statistics of the "main" tag.
>>
>> The source for this problem might be, that I have renamed tags from "main" to "main, main::sub". You have later removed this "feature".
>>
>> By the way, how about a feature, which would enable the user to search in the tag column?
>>
>> Since I use the starred card feature a lot, I would really like to filter the cards with a specific tag just for starred cards. That way I could easily get rid of starred cards. Starred cards are those cards, that need to be edited.
>>
>> My workflow is often like this: Select starred cards in the cards browser... oh no :(, tag XX::Deutsch is missing in cards with tag Turkish::Cars.... select Turkish::Cars and add missing tag.
>>
>> Since I have hundreds of tags and sub tags this can be quite annoying.
>>
>> Just a thought... I know, you want to keep Mnemosyne simple/intuitive. It would be quite easy to code this too. :)
>>
>> One question:  Will Mnemosyne sync in both directions, from phone to PC and vice versa, if I write the correct date into the date column? There are SQLite editors for Android... :D I have never edited the database directly, don't worry. ;)
>>
>> I wish you a lot of sunshine! Have a nice day!
>>
>> Greetings,
>>
>> Abakus
>>
>> Am 22.05.2018 13:28 schrieb Peter Bienstman <Peter.B...@UGent.be>:
>>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>>  
>>>
>>> I see you have quite a few cards which contain two tags like: “main” and “main::sub”. Normally, they should only have the second tag, as the first one is completely superfluous. Due to a bug in Mnemosyne, these cards show up as ‘untagged’ too.
>>>
>>>  
>>>
>>> I will look into this for the next release, but for now, I suggest you do a fresh sync from scratch, and for any new cards you create, make sure they don’t have these double tags.
>>>
>>>  
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>>
>>>  
>>>
>>> Peter
>>>
>>>  
>>>
>>> From: mnemosyne-...@googlegroups.com <mnemosyne-...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of abaku...@arcor.de
>>> Sent: 21 May 2018 18:09
>>> To: mnemosyne-proj-users@googlegroups com <mnemosyne-...@googlegroups.com>
>>> Subject: [mnemosyne-proj-users] Sync error - Deleting same fact twice
>>>
>>>  
>>>
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abaku...@arcor.de

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Jun 3, 2018, 6:59:58 PM6/3/18
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Hi Peter,

Am 24.05.2018 um 12:56 schrieb Peter Bienstman:

Hi,

 

OK, I see what you mean with respect to the statistics. In that case, it’s cleaner if I for retention score and grade I simply add separate lines for the parent tags too, without the user having to do strange things with adding superfluous tags themselves J


yes, superfluous tags should not be nessesary. By the way, it has been quite helpful to rename tags to "MainTag::SubTag1, MainTag, MainTag2::SubTag2", it would not hurt to reactivate this functionality. That way you could easily add tags to an existing tag, wihtout having to scroll down, select all and right-click add tag. This is not so important, but it's been quite handy.
I would use this feature to create sets, which I could share with my language tandem partner.


 

With an option in ‘having all of these tags’, I not only meant in activate, but also in the card browser. That would solve your problem I think.

Yes, this would solve my problem, but it will make the UI more complicated too. Not many people might use this feature, therefore there should be a checkbox in the preferences, where you could enable it.

 

With respect to getting rid of saved sets and replacing everything by tags, I’m afraid I have to decline J . That would lose a lot of functionality. E.g., I have only a few saved sets, but each of them contain much more than 1 tag. Also, the same tag can be active in many saved sets.

OK, you are probably right. But still, I would change the functionality of the "(De-)activate cards" window or just enrich the cards browser functionality (I'll explain this below.).
Some ideas:
- Right-clicking a tag in the tree menu of the cards browser could be used to add a tag to a card set, that way I would not have to go to the "(De-)Activate cards..." window. (the tag filter function for the tree menu would be quite helpful to get quickly to a specific tag).

 

In your collection, you have several hundred tags. Do you really want to be able to study them one by one in order? Apart from being very cumbersome to switch between these tags manually, it’s also not good for memory if you compartmentalise your reviews too much.

Yes, maybe Mnemosyne should not automatically activate them but keep them in order.

My first thought to automatically activate card sets might not be the way to go, because it might be to difficult to implement. To automatically activate card sets, makes only sense, when you can get rid of bad cards. I mean, if you have only one big set, the bad/unmemorizable cards will pile up. This can be quite annoying. There would be no chance to automatically advance to the next card set, because you would not get rid of those unmemorizable cards. It would only possible to automatically advance to the next card set, if there would be a (automatic?) feature, which would enable the user to forget cards and the number of forgotten/new cards in the mayor set would be limited. Unmemorizable cards should be sorted out anyway, because they are not logical or because the learner is missing the nessesary basics. -> With a forget cards feature, you could automatically schedule cards based on tags/sets.

Even if the approach, described in the last paragraph is to difficult, it seems to be logical to keep the last activated sets on top in an ordered list, because the repetition intervals are quite small, when you start working on a set. I sometimes forget, on which set of cards, I have been working on, because there are periods, where I don't spend a lot of time on new cards. But if the last active set would be on top, the chance is much bigger that I will still learn new cards, because the repetition intervals would be smaller by default. You could better plan/schedule your learning.

This is how I work on my cards:
 
1. I do use one mayor tag, which includes all the cards I am currently working on. Every day I do start with this tag until all cards, which are do, are gone.
2. I start working on the forgotten cards. This is sometimes quite annoying, when cards of bad quality (which can't remember) pile up from previous repetition cycles.
3.1. After that I choose any other subject/tag/set I want to focus on. Since I don't have a lot of cards with a specific sub tag, this a good approach.
3.2. I sometimes cheat on Mnemosyne's algorithm by grading cards with a 2, even though I don't yet have memorized them, because of bad cards piling up in the mayor set (step 2). This cheat helps schedule the cards. I do this also, because I will always remember the mayor set and don't want to search for the last active set.

 Also, if you use saved sets to choose which new words you want to memorise, it’s probably much easier to use a few well-chosen saved sets (which can evolve over time), rather than having to scroll through an enormous list of tags.

Well, I don't want to touch the sets too often. I have already a lot of work with my tags. By the way I use tags, because, I want to share my database with other people, the next person learning with the database will have nice categories. I can't share an evolving set, but I could share a list of (scheduled) sets. An ordered list will help/guide the next learner. The only reason, why I use sets, is to schedule cards.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback, it’s always helpful to know in what ways people use Mnemosyne that I didn’t consider!

You are very welcome! It's fun to give some feedback, share ideas and see the software evolve.

I wish you a nice week!

Cheers,

Abakus

Peter Bienstman

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Jun 4, 2018, 4:28:33 AM6/4/18
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>yes, superfluous tags should not be nessesary. By the way, it has been quite helpful to rename tags to "MainTag::SubTag1, MainTag, >MainTag2::SubTag2", it would not hurt to reactivate this functionality.

 

Not sure I understand this, as ‘MainTag’ is clearly a superfluous tag here. Or are you taking about autocomplete for tags if you have more than 1 tag? That should be working still.

 

Some other remarks on your workflow:

 

·         If you feel ‘bad cards’ hold you back, either edit them so that they become easier to memorise, or simply deactivate them.

·         You seem to be using tags for two different purposes, which apparently are sometimes in conflict: semantically organise your cards for your language buddy, and studying only a subset of your cards. You might consider using two different groups of tags for this: one group to organise your cards into a nice tree for your language partner, and a second set of personal tags to focus your own personal study. The first group of tags would be always inactive, and if you group your personal tags in a separate tree (abacus::tag 1, …) it will be easy for your buddy to find and delete them.

 

A suspect that with a combination of these two approaches, it should be possible to fit your workflow into Mnemosyne without the need for a convoluted feature like automatic saved set activation.

 

Cheers,

 

Peter

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