This is the web site for eding, an Emacs-based Spaced Repetition Software (SRS) System for learning German using Frank Richter's Ding dictionary. (Or English, if you happen to speak German...)

What is eding?

eding is a collection of Emacs-Lisp routines that you run under Emacs. eding provides a powerful regular expression lookup system that makes it easy to search the Ding dictionary and to add the results of your searches to a test database. It also provides a Spaced Repetition Software system which creates quizzes for the user based on past performance. In other words, when you take a test, eding automatically grades the test, stores your performance results in a database, and uses the scores from past tests to figure out which questions you need to see in future tests. It is similar in concept to SuperMemo, Mnemosyne, and Anki, but it adds very convenient dictionary lookup capability and leverages an existing 140,000+ line dictionary to make creating your test database a snap.

Why use eding?

There are many reasons:

Why is eding on Sourceforge?

Again, there are many reasons, but the main reason is simple: The truth is, I had never even heard of SRS systems until about a week before I started working on eding. I started reading about SuperMemo and got hooked. My first scheduling algorithms were based on an early SuperMemo algorithm, but I was never happy with the feel of the system. I felt that the performance measurement was too subjective. I started experimenting with algorithms based purely on speed of response, because I believe that fluency requires your response to be automatic; lightning fast.

Well, based on what I have read, this philosophy would probably not be embraced by most people that are working on SRS systems. But the thing is, the system as it is now works really well for me. So I figured, why not let other people give it a try and possibly come up with even better scheduling algorithms? I freely admit that mine is not based on some grand theory. It is based on common sense and months of trial and error. Also, the scheduling algorithm doesn't even account for much of the code! Most of the code is housekeeping and parsing stuff. So I invite people to beat on the scheduling algorithm and improve it!

Here are some of the other reasons that eding belongs on Sourceforge:

How to get eding

SourceForge.net Logo