wordpoke.me

A blog to keep you up to date with the latest in the evolution of the wordpoke iOS application.

[wordpoke-blog]

wordpoke version 1.0 has been released.

wordpoke version 1.0 was released to the app store on 13th October 2011. 4 days after I submitted it.

Proof

View it on the app store

The oneliner:

"add, forget, remind, remember"

Quick facts

It is a memory aid.

The cost is less than a good cup of coffee.

The more you use it, the more useful it becomes.

You add the words you want to learn.

It uses spaced repetition to help learn the item.

No advertising of any sort!

What is wordpoke in a nutshell

wordpoke allows you to add words and then be reminded of them later to help you learn them.

How?

you: add a word.

wordpoke: reminds you of the word later on.

you: re-cap the word.

wordpoke: reminds you of the word later on.

repeat cycle.

At anytime you can keep adding words, phrases.

Who uses it?

At the moment, I the developer use it everyday.

[wordpoke-blog]

Red squiggly line

In this post, I describe one of the reasons for the creation of wordpoke.

Spell checkers or spellcheckers

(Writing spellcheckers causes the red squiggle to appear.)

They are a wonderful addition to the text editor toolbox and have penetrated many of places you find yourself adding text.

word documents

google docs

IDE's

drawing programmes ( illustrator, inkscape ... )

Steps I go through when I am faced with a red squiggle.

Must have been a typo. Look for possible key combinations.

Try shuffling common combinations to make the line go away.

Only after these first two approaches do I actually engage my brain:

"stop, think and re-write the whole word"

The problem

I am sure (not scientifically proven) that I find myself getting the red squiggle for the same words.

Why is this a problem?

It means I make the same mistake over and over. repetition or rote learning is a well known way to master something, be it a skill or in this case a word. Its not very useful however when we are teaching ourselves the wrong spelling.

So?

I have no problem making mistakes. For me, making mistakes is an important part of gaining greater knowledge. The key to making mistakes is avoiding repeating the same mistake over and over. Which is why I have a love hate relationship with spell checkers.

The seed for "wordpoke" was set.

Life is very much about learning, I think it is fair to say, after schooling the emphasis on learning new words and spelling proficiently certainly takes a back seat in life, unless of course you have a love for words.

Give it two weeks of daily use and you will be hooked.