Installing
Starting
Trouble Shooting
Installing
Getting Java
Vocabulary Trainer runs on a Java virtual machine. If you do not
already have one, get it for your operating system at JavaSoft's website.
You may want to
download a Java Runtime Environment JRE, or if you are willing to code
in Java yourself, you may download the larger Java Development Kit,
JDK. The JDK can essentially do the same for you than the JRE, but it
also allows you to compile Java source code on your own. At JavaSoft's
download section, look for J2SE, since the JRE and JDK bundles
were addressed as "Java 2 Standard Edition".
For the installation of Java, follow the installation guide provided
from JavaSoft together with the JDK or JRE.
To find out if you already have Java on your system, or if you have
installed Java succesfully, type "java" at the command line. If the
java virtual machine is loading, you should see some messages as
respond to your command and can proceed with the installation of
Vocabulary Trainer.
Unix,
Linux
Drop the downloaded zip-archive somewhere, for example
/user/local/java/application/, and do an unzip command on the file.
This will create a folder named "voctrain", holding all files which
belong to Vocabulary Trainer. If you have no root access, install
Vocabulary Trainer into one of your local folders inside your home
directory.
Windows
Choose a destination for the program to live in, for example
"C:\Program
Files\java\application". Use explorer to copy the archive
"voctrain_1.0-1.zip" there, or download it immediately to this
place. Use a tool like "freezip" to unzip the archive contents and
delete the archive. Now the choosen destination directoy contains a new
folder named "voctrain", which contains all the files belonging to
Vocabulary Trainer.
Drag the icon of "voctrain.bat" with your right mouse button out of the
file manager (Explorer) onto your desktop or into a program group and
create a link. Windows should assign the icon "voctrain.ico" to the
link automatically, and create a pif-file which you can modify with the
properties-menu of the new icon.
Zaurus
Zaurus users should previously have installed Jeode, which is default
for the shipped Zaurus ROM. Then use the "Add/Remove Software"-tool to
install the i-package, or get root access and type:
ipkg install voctrain_1.0-1_arm.ipk
Now start the "Tab Setting"-tool. There, you'll find the new icon in
the tab-group "Applications". Move it to whatever tab you want, and
press "OK" and "Yes" with your stylus.
When the tab-manager has saved the configuration, you can start
Vocabulary Trainer, which will then load the file "example.voc".
The installed configuration file is not write-able. Copy it from /usr/local/java/voctrain/voctrain.cfg
to a local folder in /home/zaurus, and then edit
the according line in the start script /usr/local/java/voctrain/voctrain
to point at the new location. Now you can edit it more easily, and
Vocabulary Trainer will be able to remember the last opened vocabulary
file.
Starting
Unix, Linux
If starting from a command line, change into the installation directory
and type "./voctrain". You can also put the installation directory into
your executable path, or link to voctrain from inside a folder which is
already in your executable path, and then type "voctrain" in any
directory.
If you prefer to start with a button, then create one on your desktop
or inside a menu panel and point the buttons starting command line to
voctrain.
Windows
Click on the icon which you have created
with a link when you did the installation. You can also start
inside a Dosbox or from another batch script, using the command "voctrain.bat",
and starting like this you can make use of the command line
parameters.
Zaurus
Use the icon in the
chosen tab group and start the program with your stylus.
Generally
When starting for the first time, a file dialog will offer you an
example
vocabulary file. Read the user documentation to see how you can create
your own files.
Trouble Shooting
Write
Access needed
Vocabulary Trainer wants to update its configuration file
"voctrain.cfg", and it also needs to create and update the
control
files with which it tracks the users learning progress. If this fails,
you can check if the program already has write access to voctrain.cfg
and to the folder containing your vocabulary files. If you have no root
access and thus can not give yourself write access, you can use a local
copy of voctrain.cfg, like it is described in the user documentation.
Java 1.1
The JDK versions up to JDK 1.1.8 are generally refered to as "Java
1.1". In those olden days, Java needed to know the path to its own classes.zip file
when executing a program. If the path to classes.zip was not given in
the calling parameters, the virtual machine would eventually exit with
an error message reading "Unable to
initialize threads: cannot find class java/lang/Thread".
If you were using a Java version elder than Java 2, you have to open
the voctrain starting script (voctrain.bat for Windows users),
uncomment the line which is titled "Path to classes.zip" and edit the
given path so that it points the way to the classes.zip in your own
file system.
If you have trouble finding your classes.zip than do a file search with
the explorer file manager, or type "which java" in a command line
interface to get the folder where java is located, change to that
folder and enter "cd ..; cd lib; pwd".
Now you should see the path to your classes.zip file, which has to be
entered below the "Path to classes.zip" line in the starting script
named "voctrain".
Application window too small
The
default application window is choosen such that it fits well on the VGA
display of a Zaurus. Using vocabularies with manifold translation
possibilities, you may thus discover that not all translations were
shown (Java 1.1), or that the given vocabulary is scrolled out of sight
by its translations (Java 2). This is not really a problem, since you
can resize the application window with your pointing device. If you
prefer to start with a larger window size instead, than change the
parameters x_size and y_size in Vocabulary
Trainer's configuration file voctrain.cfg to your needs.
If your Java-enabled handheld is featuring a smaller display than VGA,
you probably want to adjust the application windows dimensions and the
font size. To accomplish this, edit the parameters length_Inputfield
and fontsize until the result is up to your needs. All
these parameters are explained extensively in the user
documentation.
Multi-User computers
and voctrain.cfg
If you were running a multi-user environment were several user want to
try Vocabulary Trainer, each user needs an own voctrain.cfg
so that he won't interfere with the settings of the others. The
issue is solved with providing a path to an user defined voctrain.cfg
on the command line which starts Vocabulary Trainer. For detailed
information how this could be done, read about loading
vocabularies in the user documentation.
In Windows, I feel disturbed
by the Dosbox
Open the icon-menu with a
right-button-click on the icon and choose "properties". Then activate
the checkbox "Close when program ends" and choose the entry "As Symbol"
in the select-list describing the dosbox appearance. From now on, the
dosbox should appear only during the program start, and only as a
symbol in the taskbar.
In
Windows, the "SendTo" command does not always work
You have made a link to Vocabulary Trainer (voctrain.bat) in Windows
"SendTo"-folder, located in the Windows-folder, and now you want to use
the "SendTo"-entry in windows icon popup-menu on a vocabulary file to
start Vocabulary Trainer with this file. But then, you have discovered
an error message when your files are put into a deeper level in the
directory structure, claiming that Windows has not enough
"environmental memory".
Add the following line to your "System.ini"-file, located
in the "Windows"-folder:
[NonWindowsApp]
CommandEnvSize=1024
Put the line to the "NonWindowsApp"-Section, as shown above, and the
environmental memory of Vocabulary Trainer should be sufficient after
you were rebooting Windows.
In Windows, the program
won't start
Eventually, the Java virtual machine is not found on your system. In
the starting script "voctrain.bat", the Java
Runtime-Environment is set with the command "jrew" by
default, but if you have installed a JDK, Vocabulary Trainer should be
started with "javaw" or "java" instead. In "voctrain.bat"
you can also set the path to "javaw", in case it is not in
your system-path. Open "voctrain.bat" with a text editor
and modify the related lines.