I have been working on Surface Texts, an online foreign language reader designed mainly to help me learn Italian (and Polish). The gist is that you can import texts (internet pages), click on words to have an immediate translation, and then test yourself using flashcards.

I wanted a reader that worked exactly as I needed (and was free), and being a programmer the natural thing was to make my own.

Naturally, anyone else can use it as well.

It is not yet complete, but I hope by the end of next week (providing I can retain focus) it will be useable. It works now, but without flashcards – which kind of limits its purpose. So I’m going to add these asap and then spend sometime actively using and tweeking the site to make it just as it should be.

I am an apple d00d, so I’ve ensured that it works well with an iPad. (This caused me some headaches as Safari on the iPad doesn’t work in exactly the same way as either Safari on a Mac, or other browsers. Ho. Hum).

You can see where I have got to here.

For any fellow programmers, it makes extensive use of localStarage, so any browsers or pads that lack that particular facility (and some do) won’t be able to use it. I’ve used localStarage as I didn’t want to faff too much with server side programming with this project. There will be some (export of files and so on) but not much.

Helpful comments or e-mails much appreciated.

Peace,

MoOnFaCe.