slcard - Shapeless Card

2.0 announcement

slcard has been rewritten complete.

In version 2.0, the code is cleaner, and the app will not crash if open a non-existing file.

Introduction

This is a simple flashcard application using SDL2, featuring keyboard-centric controls and extreme minimalistic.

Features

Written in pure C, depends on SDL2 and SDL2_ttf only.
Only use keyboard to control.
Databases are in txt format, easy to edit with any software.
Uses command line interface to import and export databases, great for automation.

Prerequisite

Basic navigation with terminal is necessary. Unix system is prefered.

The application should work on Windows machines with very little modification. I do not have a Windows machine, so cannot test out.

Installation

macOS

No matter if you want to compile or not, installing homebrew and required dependencies is necessary.

Install Homebrew. https://brew.sh/

Open the terminal and paste the following. Let it run until finished.

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Install sdl2 and sdl2_ttf.

brew install sdl2 sdl2_ttf

Next, you can either compile the application yourself or download the binary.

Compile your self. (Recommended)

Compile the application yourself can avoid Apple’s stupid security firewall. Compilation does not take long.

Install xcode command line tools. This is for compiling the application.

xcode-select --install

Clone the source code and compile. Input your password if necessary.

mkdir ~/src
cd ~/src
git clone 'https://github.com/drshapeless/slcard.git'
cd slcard
make
sudo make install

Download the binary.

This is the easier way to get things work.

Unzip the binary and install it, assuming the binary is at the ~/Downloads folder. Input password if needed.

sudo cp ~/Downloads/slcard /usr/local/bin/

If you Mac prevents you from opening the application, go to settings and adjust your permissions.

GNU/Linux

I use Arch Linux as example.

Install sdl2 and sdl2_ttf.

sudo pacman -S sdl2 sdl2_ttf

Clone the source code.

git clone 'https://github.com/drshapeless/slcard.git'
cd slcard

Before you compile the code, please modify the FONT_PATH in Config.h to what you have on your computer. After modification, compile.

make
sudo make install

Usage

Make a revision folder

By default, It is required to create a revision folder in your home directory to store all the related data.

mkdir ~/revision

It is also required to create a database file for storing exported database.

mkdir ~/revision/database

In the revision folder, a score file and a log file would be automatically created after your first game. They are quite useful for tracking your overall revision progress.

Starting a game

There are three mode for reading a source file, plain, list, database.

All of these format are just txt file.

A plain is just a normal txt file, alternating between question and answer.
A list is a list of the locations of some plain files.
A database is a json-like structure which can store the complete game state at a certain time.

To start with a plain file.

slcard -f myfile.txt

You can also start with multiple plain files.

slcard -f myfile_1.txt -f myfile_2.txt

To start with a list.

slcard -l mylist.txt

Multiple lists.

slcard -l mylist_1.txt -l mylist_2.txt

To start with a database. (The trailing db is just a convention for database, it has nothing to do with internal recognition.)

slcard -d 001db.txt

Multiple databases.

slcard -d 001db.txt 002db.txt

You can mix different types together and form a new game.

slcard -f myfile_1.txt -l mylist.txt -d 001db.txt

Rules

There is a mark for every question, which I call the memory count, when you forget, the mark increases by one, when you remember, the mark decreases by one. Once the mark of every question reaches zero, the game ends.

Basic navigations.

Only keyboard is needed to play the game, mouse cursor has no effects.

Space. Toggle show or hide the answer.
N. Next question.
P. Previous question.
J. Mark as forgot and next question.
K. Mark as remembered and next question.
O. New game and shuffle.
S. Shuffle.
T. Add one forgot mark to every question.
D. Export the current game as a database file. (If you did not specify the output filename in the starting command, a file with current time as name would be exported to the database folder in ~/revision.)

For my personal experience, most the time was hitting J, K and space. After reaching the last question (which can be seen on the top right corner), hit O to start a new game, it would omit all question with 0 marks.

Advanced usage.

If you want to create a new database file with some lists and plains, or even some databases without starting the game, you can use the -n flag at the end. A database file with the current time as name would be exported.

slcard -d 001db.txt -l mylist.txt -f myfile1.txt -f myfile2.txt -n

If you want to specify the output database name of a game, use the -o flag followed by the name of the database. When you press D in during a game, the exported database would be your defined name. Useful for playing a big game which may take multiple sessions.

slcard -d 001db.txt -d 002db.txt -o newdb.txt

You can use both -n and -o flags together for merging databases. What is does is merging two databases.

slcard -d 001db.txt -d 002db.txt -o newdb.txt -n

Background

This application is for personal use. I needed a flashcard tool to memerize a lot of things. The most famous flashcard application is Anki.

However, I consider Anki to be extremely bloated and insecure. First, Anki supports a lot of formats of flashcard, and uses SQL to store the decks, which I do not need.

Second, using Anki requires you to register an account, and the databases you made are automatically shared to everyone.

Third, and the most important point is, Anki is not very keyboard-centric, and has a very limited way to customize you keys.

Also, the iOS version of Anki is proprietary and ridiculously expensive.

Therefore, I got my hands dirty and made my own simple flashcard which fits all my needs.

Todo list

Add a graphical interface for initializing a game. (Not likely to happen.)
Support for pixel perfect font rendering. (In progress.)
In game visual customization. (Not in first priority.)