Wenlin Software for Learning Chinese ( , literally
"Literature forest") is a
software application designed by Tom Bishop,
based on his experience of the needs of learners of the
Chinese language, predominantly
Mandarin. It contains a dictionary
function as well as a text reader/writer function for reading and
creating Chinese text files. Flashcards of new characters can also
be compiled to aid in learning. By pointing the cursor at a Chinese
character the software looks up an English word, and vice versa,
working like a dictionary. If a word is selected out of context
this "could be extremely misleading for Chinese language
students"
[151084] (note however that this review is rather
dated and may not apply to the current version). The Wenlin
software can recognize files in
Unicode,
GB 2312,
Big5, and
HZ format.
List Function
The software allows the user to display lists of Chinese characters
ordered by
pinyin, stroke count, frequency,
components, or Unicode. It also displays lists of words by pinyin,
frequency, and serial number. English words can be displayed
alphabetically, as well as the
214 radicals of the Chinese
language.
Dictionary Function
The dictionary function allows the user to input Chinese characters
or pinyin (including the phonetic marking) to search. The user can
also highlight words in a text and search for them in the
dictionary. Wenlin has its own built-in dictionaries, but
user-created dictionaries can be uploaded into the software.
Current Version and Compatibility
It is marketed by the
Wenlin
Institute, a commercial software company run by Tom Bishop. The
current version (August 2007) is 3.4.1, and a free demonstration
version is available for download. This version supports several
functions such as
stroke order,
ordering characters by different criteria (stroke order,
radical, number of strokes),
audio files of characters being pronounced, and the identification
of drawn characters.
The software runs on all versions of
Microsoft Windows, as well as
Mac OS X and
Mac OS 9. As
of August 2005, the company is working on a
Java version.
External links
), note that this review is dated and may not apply
to the current version
), reviews and compares 10 programs including Wenlin
1.0
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