an effective tool for instilling vocabularies into your brain

blinker

#!/bin/bash
# The "Blinker" (or "깜빡이" in Korean) for Mac
#  an effective tool for instilling vocabularies into your brain
# 
# Usage: blinker [-OPTION...] SET...
# 
#  SET is the path to a file where each of its line contains a word and its
#   definition separated by tab character.  You can get lots of quality sets
#   from http://quizlet.com/.
# 
#  Following OPTIONs are available:
#   -l LEARNCOUNT   Number of words to learn in straight (Default:10)
#   -g GUESSCOUNT   Number of words to guess in straight (Default:3)
#   -d MINPAUSE     Minimum delay (in seconds) to have between words
#   -D MAXPAUSE     Maximum delay (in seconds) to have between words
#   -h              Show this message
# 
#
# Author: Jaeho Shin <[email protected]>
# Created: 2010-05-25
set -e

usage() { sed -n '2,/^#$/ s/^# //p' <"$0"; exit 1; }

# check prerequisites
type open grep sed osascript growlnotify shuf >/dev/null

# stuffs for Blinker
BLINKERHOME="$HOME/.blinker"
mkdir -p "$BLINKERHOME"
BlinkerSession=`mktemp -d "$BLINKERHOME/session.XXXXXX"`
trap "rm -rf $BlinkerSession" EXIT QUIT INT TERM
WordBuffer="$BlinkerSession/buffer"
WordHistory="$BLINKERHOME/history"

# default behavior
LengthOfLearningSessions=3
LengthOfGuessingSessions=1
MinDelayBetweenWords=3
MaxDelayBetweenWords=10

# process arguments
while getopts "hl:g:D:d:" o; do
    case $o in
        h) usage ;;
        l) LengthOfLearningSessions=$OPTARG ;;
        g) LengthOfGuessingSessions=$OPTARG ;;
        d) MinDelayBetweenWords=$OPTARG ;;
        D) MaxDelayBetweenWords=$OPTARG ;;
        *) echo "$o: unknown option" >&2 ;;
    esac
done
shift $(($OPTIND - 1))

[ $# -gt 0 ] || usage
Files=("$@")


# our primitive vocabularies
check-guess() {
    local word=$1
    local definition=$2
    osascript -e '
    tell application "Dictionary"
        activate
        set result to display dialog "'"$word"'\n'"$definition"'\n\nIs it what you thought?" buttons {"Yes", "No", "Lookup"} default button 1 with title "Check Your Guess" with icon note
        return the button returned of result
    end tell
    '
}

pick-words() {
    local count=$1
    if ! [ -e "$WordBuffer" ]; then
        if [ -e "$WordHistory" ]; then
            grep -viF -f "$WordHistory" "${Files[@]}"
        else
            cat "${Files[@]}"
        fi >"$WordBuffer"
    fi
    # TODO reset the history if none remains
    # shuffle excluding ones already learned
    shuf -n $count "$WordBuffer"
}

add-to-history() {
    # add to history and
    for word; do
        echo "$word"
    done >>"$WordHistory"
    # remove from WordBuffer
    grep -viF "$word" "$WordBuffer" >"$WordBuffer~"
    mv -f "$WordBuffer~" "$WordBuffer"
}

blink() {
    growlnotify --name "Blinker" --appIcon Dictionary --wait "$@"
}

maxVariableDelay=$(($MaxDelayBetweenWords
                - $MinDelayBetweenWords))
pause() {
    sleep $(($MinDelayBetweenWords
            + $maxVariableDelay * $RANDOM/32768))
}


# our modes of learning
mode=learn

show-the-word-with-definition() {
    if blink "$word" <<<"$definition"; then
        sleep 0.5 || break
    else
        pause || break
    fi
}

learn() {
    mode=false
    pick-words $LengthOfLearningSessions |
    while IFS="	" read -r word definition; do
        show-the-word-with-definition
    done &&
    mode=guess
}

guess() {
    mode=false
    pick-words $LengthOfGuessingSessions |
    while IFS="	" read -r word definition; do
        if blink "$word?" --message "Guess and click if you know"; then
            case "`check-guess "$word" "$definition"`" in
                Yes)    add-to-history "$word" ;;
                No)     echo "$word" ;;
                Lookup) echo "$word"
                # TODO look up in the Dictionary.app itself
                open "http://www.google.com/search?q=define:$word"
                ;;
            esac
        else
            show-the-word-with-definition
        fi
    done &&
    mode=learn
}

# now, start blinking
while :; do $mode; done