What is this FLEx Lite and how can I help in its development?

[Cường]

I'm interested in the project known as "FLEx Lite", which seems to be a combination of an updated version of WeSay, and a simpler version of "FLEx Full" (hopefully with better UI, and significantly improved speed). How can I help beta-test this program?

As for me personally, I feel like the program (FLEx Full) is too big. While I understand that this program does what it does well (creating a lexicon, interlinearlizing texts), the biggest problems is its speed, its UI (mostly the unchangable font size), and how it's kind of hard to convince/train some university department/ethnic organization to use it. 

All of the above is my opinion, and others might disagree. 

[Kevin Hahn]

Hi Cường, thanks for your interest in FieldWorks lite.

I'm the lead developer on this project and I'd be happy to answer your questions about it. 

You can download it here: https://lexbox.org/fw-lite

Currently supported platforms: Windows, Android and Linux. (Mac and iOS are planned for the future).

Send feedback to:  lexbox_...@groups.sil.org

Our goal is to be a modern replacement for tools like WeSay and Language Forge. We aim to empower mother-tongue speakers to take ownership of their language by putting their dictionary directly into their hands—and onto their phones.

Here's what sets FieldWorks lite apart:

• Easy to use: With a simple and intuitive interface.

• Fast: Quickly open and edit your data.

• Full Offline Support: Work anywhere, with or without an internet connection.
  

Requires a Lexbox project:

• Instant Sync & Backup: Your project is always backed up to Lexbox when you're online.

• Live Collaboration: Instantly see changes made by other team members.

• Robust Conflict Handling: Safely manage edits when multiple people change the same entry.

• History & Activity Views: Easily track what's been changed and by whom.

• Mobile Support: Edit or Read your dictionary on the go with the Android app.

Feel free to try it out. There's 2 modes which you can use FieldWorks lite. The first is just as a FLEx alternative program on windows. This is probably the easiest way for anyone already using FLEx to try it out. Just install it and it will find your projects and let you open them, this will edit the project already on your computer. This mode does not include instant sync, live collaboration, history, read only or mobile support.

However if you want some of those other features then there's a little work to setup your project. You need to have an existing FLEx project, and you need to upload it to lexbox (formerly Language Depot) via Send & Receive. Then you'll need to contact us at lexbox_...@groups.sil.org and request an invite to test FieldWorks lite, that way we can test out your project ahead of time to make sure there's no bugs converting your project to support FieldWorks Lite. Once we get your project setup you'll be able to edit it on mobile and track change history and have readonly users etc. We'll explain more details when we invite you.

If you try it out and have any feedback, there's a button built in for giving us feedback, alternatively you can contact us at lexbox_...@groups.sil.org, we would love feedback on bugs, issues, improvements etc, especially about making it easier to use.

Thanks, Kevin.

[David Rowbory]

Wow, I'm very excited by this, particularly the simpler interface, robust conflict handling (interactive easy to understand merge?) and history viewer aspects. I have wished for something like this for projects in Nigeria. Without wanting to risk feature creep, I think a 'suggestion mode' would be very helpful at some point to encourage contributions, and I guess audio recordings in mp3 or ogg would be a good idea rather than weighing down the databases with large audio recordings.