Kdrill is a program to help you learn kanji and/or kana characters.
[ Under X windows, version R5 or later, with "Athena"(Xaw) widgets ]

For those of you who don't know, kanji are used by the Chinese and
Japanese written languages. Kana are used by the Japanese language only.
Additionally, kdrill can serve as a dictionary lookup program. It is
developed for Japanese study, but can be used for Chinese also.

As of Nov 1999, the latest version is kdrill5.9
This is a very stable version. You are encouraged to upgrade, if you have
an older version.

The main file, "kdrill5.X.tar.gz", is the actual software, with a
reference on where to get a dictionary for kanji<->english translations.
Use gtar, or gzip then tar, to unarchive the source.
I did not make the dictionaries, and they are quite large, so I only include
a partial version in the archive. See the README file inside the archive for 
where to get them. 

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"makedic.tar.gz" is an updated version of the hiragana/katakana
mini-dictionaries.
This is in the main archive file. But if for some reason you have an 
older version of kdrill you want to stick to, they are provided here
separately.

The makedic suppliment is a collection of very small dictionaries I put
together myself, to aid in learning the "kana" characters. Included are
hiragana and kanakana dictionaries, along with a little more information on
how to make your own.  Single kana characters are NOT available for quizzing
by kanjidic, the usual dictionary kdrill uses.

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Kdrill requires at minimum the X11 R5-equivalent versions of the 
Athena Widget Set, otherwise known as Xaw.  It does NOT require any other 
special software.
(apart from imake, etc. If for some reason you don't have imake, you may
 be able to fake it. Let me know if you have any problems)


Philip Brown
phil@bolthole.com


PS: the official kdrill www page, with screengrabs, is at

http://www.bolthole.com/kdrill/