Looking to create a Chinese text reader for desktop and mobile that has three basic parts:

1. A Chinese to English dictionary that allows for pinyin (Romanization) and Chinese search


2. A reader that allows for .txt file importation with instant, mouse-over/tap translation of Chinese characters. The definitions will appear in a frame along the bottom.


3. A flashcard module that will allow the use to review words that he/she has saved while reading files or looking up words

Details on each section:

1. Dictionary: this will be very a simple with a simple text search window where Chinese character or Romanized pinyin (with or without tone) will be inputted with a return of entries listed below. Tap/click an entry to see more details. For the desktop version this will be in a sidebar, where the mobile version it will have its own tab.

2. Reader: This is the main feature of the app. After a .txt file is imported it is a book in the user's library (also hoping to be able to create a book from the clipboard). The user can recall this book at any time with automatic position saving and the ability to create book marks. While reading the user can tap on any character for an instant definition that will appear in a bottom frame. The software needs to be able to detect when there is a two or more character grouping. Chinese characters are often grouped together to create a word: 電話 literally means electric word but it actually means telephone. There are also larger groupings of 4 or more characters but those are rarer.

For page up/down I'm hoping to use keys like space bar (or user configurable) and for mobile I'd like to use sliding gestures since tapping is taken up by the character lookup feature.

3. Flash cards: the important thing with flashcards is that they are saved with each individual book as a separate txt file or together with the book file. The actual module can be very simple so that the character is shown with a reveal button that shows the pinyin and meaning. Then there can be a correct or incorrect button for the user to self-score. This score can be saved for review after the flashcard session.

Basically this looks like two pieces of software desktop and mobile. However, using web programming and tools like Adobe AIR, or other multi platform tools I'm hoping it's possible to maintain one code base at least for the core features. If the right candidate is found this could easily lead to more than one project.

another feature we'd like to have in the future is the ability to include rich content like images, video, and audio into books that can also be read in the same was a the user loaded text files. This makes JavaScript/html5 an even more obvious option.

You can view an example of this type of software here: http://www.clavisinica.com/home.html

It is written in java and is very slow and only a reference for the basic features.

This is the free, open-source Chinese dictionary text file that is to be used for the dictionary source: http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/export/cedict/cedict_1_0_ts_utf-8_mdbg.zip

If you have questions please send a private message.