Show HN: Ginseng – a spaced repetition learning/flashcard web app | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Ginseng – a spaced repetition learning/flashcard web app

eatginseng.com

32 pointss9w11 comments

Nice work, the Dropbox integration is probably a good idea (although I personally don't use Dropbox). One question though: is it not possible to click to the next question, when you're reviewing? Does this require signing in?

Coincidentally, I also recently used React to build a SRS site specifically targeted toward review of computer science topics. React definitely makes building UIs into a pleasure. (Now, if only there were an equally elegant, open-source solution for client-side data/models).

By the way, you mention possibly moving to Mathjax. I tried out Mathjax before I ended up just switching to pre-rendered images generated from LaTeX. Now that I know about KaTeX, I'll probably switch to that instead of pre-rendered images. But trying to integrate Mathjax with React is a challenge, because of how Mathjax manipulates the DOM. It's doable, but even then I ran into performance issues and abandoned it in favor of pre-rendered images.

KaTeX appears to have addressed both the React integration issues and the performance problems (not to mention the download size of the Mathjax libraries).

At the moment, I've just released a basic flashcard version of the site without the SRS functionality [1]. (the SRS requires Firebase, and I haven't yet published that code)

1. http://esbullington.github.io/canonicalcards/ (by the way, I'm actively looking for pull requests with additional questions on data structure, algorithms, and other topics from the core computer science curricula).

Hey! Sure you can go to the next question. You have to "double click" on an interval to go to the next. When you click an interval it get's selected and the due time is previewed. Then click another time to apply it. Many seem to find that counter-intuitive - I might make that one more clear.

Humm I used Mathjax at some point before and will probably go back soon since KaTeX doesn't seem to be updated anymore and Mathjax just got a new very fast beta version. I'll see how well it plays with React then. I would hate to go to pre-rendered images though. That's so cumbersome and just gah :D.

I also used Firebase for Ginseng before! But then no one has a Firebase account to use on their own, and using a central one would mean user management/registration, traffic costs etc. That's why I pulled out. So you're using one account for the program?

Is this different from Anki (http://ankisrs.net/)? I believe Anki supports a web interface, in addition to desktop and mobile apps.

Well, Anki is also a spaced repetition program/app. The details are quite different though. Mainly, Ginseng gives direct control over the review interval: So no easy/hard/etc, but rather directly manipulate the interval. Also there are no static decks, it has a clean data format, no reliance on the proprietary server backend, native markdown etc.

I'm an excessive Anki user, so this is basically my dream version of a SRS program.

Github repo is https://github.com/s9w/Ginseng

This is built with React. I'm happy for any feedback or wishes!

Nice work. Quick look at your repo and I'm impressed with how you indented your work. Its makes everything readable (most of the javascript I've seen is a mess, maybe I read too much bad code)

Offline access would be an awesome feature, especially for users who are not "always connected".

congratulations, this looks very nice! some wishes after playing with it a little: - keyboard control over the interface! - an option to mark an info as learned - import option

This is interesting. I've also built a flashcard web app with spaced repetition (http://flashcardstash.com). I'm curious, why only the Dropdox login?

Because it's 100% client side so I have to rely on other services :D. Why Dropbox specifically? I think that's the one most people have. No special reason.

I created one here: http://vocowl.com

Source: github.com/pathikrit/vocowl

That is cool

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