[kamikun]

My 2円....

JWPce and JFC are excellent applications and are FREE. JWPce was designed as a word processor and it works well enough for that task. In fact it's the only Japanese compatible word processor I know of that will run on English PPCs. There are plenty of text editors that support Unicode and Shift-JIS (Tillanosoft and UKNote are two freeware examples) but I can only create formated documents (and flashcards for JFC) with JWPce.

JWPce was not designed as a dictionary app although it has that ability and that's what people used it for most of the time anyway. It's a three step process to get any word looked up. But Jim Breen's support of JWPce (providing ready-made dictionary files and indicies) made it the PPC dictionary of choice for cheapskates like me.

Declan's dictionary is just a basic, no hassle application. It doesn't offer a lot of frills but it is easy to work with.

I have MDict as well but have not been nearly as impressed with it as with EBPocket. Try it out. The searches through the 26Meg example file are instantaneous. It runs on VGA screens. The font sizes are completely customizable. And it supports all kind of freeware and for-purchase data files... including files with picture and voice data (although I haven't had a chance to try that yet).

Ikawamot - Hey! You're Japanese! Go to the EBPocket page and give us a better heads-up than I can. I've lived in your country for 8 years and I still read and speak like a four year old who has suffered major blunt force trauma.

If you're fully bilingual you might want to offer a translation of the page even. This app is really too good of a tool to keep hidden. And it's use doesn't have to be restricted to Japanese data.... that thing is like Tome Raider on steriods.
It can rip through multiple data bases with several different search filters in a second regardless of size - とてもすごいと思います。。。

Just wondering... what do you use for Japanese input on your PPC? (Assuming you're using an English PPC.) I'm a big fan of Decuma but it has some problems working in VGA and on English machines.

[kamikun]

My 2円....

JWPce and JFC are excellent applications and are FREE. JWPce was designed as a word processor and it works well enough for that task. In fact it's the only Japanese compatible word processor I know of that will run on English PPCs. There are plenty of text editors that support Unicode and Shift-JIS (Tillanosoft and UKNote are two freeware examples) but I can only create formated documents (and flashcards for JFC) with JWPce.

JWPce was not designed as a dictionary app although it has that ability and that's what people used it for most of the time anyway. It's a three step process to get any word looked up. But Jim Breen's support of JWPce (providing ready-made dictionary files and indicies) made it the PPC dictionary of choice for cheapskates like me.

Declan's dictionary is just a basic, no hassle application. It doesn't offer a lot of frills but it is easy to work with.

I have MDict as well but have not been nearly as impressed with it as with EBPocket. Try it out. The searches through the 26Meg example file are instantaneous. It runs on VGA screens. The font sizes are completely customizable. And it supports all kind of freeware and for-purchase data files... including files with picture and voice data (although I haven't had a chance to try that yet).

Ikawamot - Hey! You're Japanese! Go to the EBPocket page and give us a better heads-up than I can. I've lived in your country for 8 years and I still read and speak like a four year old who has suffered major blunt force trauma.

If you're fully bilingual you might want to offer a translation of the page even. This app is really too good of a tool to keep hidden. And it's use doesn't have to be restricted to Japanese data.... that thing is like Tome Raider on steriods.
It can rip through multiple data bases with several different search filters in a second regardless of size - とてもすごいと思います。。。

Just wondering... what do you use for Japanese input on your PPC? (Assuming you're using an English PPC.) I'm a big fan of Decuma but it has some problems working in VGA and on English machines.

[kamikun]

Again - Declan's strength is in their language tutorial software (ReadWrite and their Audio Flashcards)... the dictionary is nice but not much better than the freeware alternatives out there. The one thing that it does offer is simple, one-package, installation. But if you're willing to climb the learning curve it seems the offerings are getting pretty numerous.

I just found this posted at Jim Breen's site. It's another freeware dictionary client that reads simple text files (no conversions or special configurations required). It's designed for PDA use but runs on JAVA. (Isn't there a JAVA runtime package for PocketPCs?) It can search multiple dictionaries (databases) and can be used with any Unicode text. That's promising if you were in the mind of creating your own base of 文型 or something.

Haven't tried it yet but if'n you're interested, here's the link. It's called Babbletower and looks neat.