Installation Instructions

Download

The current stable release of JLDrill is 0.3.0. It can be obtained at JLDrill’s RubyForge Project Page. You will need the following files:

and optionally

Of the two optional fonts, the KanjiStrokeOrders is most important. It allows you to see the stroke orders. The kochi-mincho font is the font that the application defaults to when quizing kanji and readings. It is not necessary if you already have a Japanese font.

Important Note:

Version 0.3.0 does not have an easy to use installer. This is planned for version 0.4.0. I apologize for this, but unfortunately functionality issues had priority for the current version. Installation is complicated at the present time, but not necessarily difficult. If you have problems, feel free to contact me and I will try to help.

Installation

First ensure that you have the requirements installed.

From a command line prompt (Start->Applications->Accessories->Command in Windows), type the following:

    gem install context-0.0.16.gem
    gem install jldrill-0.3.0.gem

Note: Depending on how you installed ruby gems, you may have to be root or use sudo in Linux.

JLDrill is now installed. However, in order to view the stroke order diagrams, you must install the stroke order font.

Installing the Fonts

Windows

In Windows you must download the fonts (KanjiStrokeOrders.ttf and/or kochi-mincho.ttf) files and copy them into the font directory. You can get the font directory by selecting Start->Control Panel->Fonts.

There is one more thing you must do. Unfortunately Windows doesn’t follow it’s own specification for fonts, so the KanjiStrokeOrders font looks terrible. In some cases you can barely read the stroke number. In order to get the sub-pixel hints you must turn on Clear-Type. You can do so by right clicking on the desktop. Then select Properties. From the window, select the Appearance tab. Press the “Effects…” button. The second entry has a checkbox and reads “Use the following method to smooth the edges of screen fonts:”. Check this button and select “Clear Type” from the following drop down menu.

This will have the effect of turning on anti-aliasing for all your fonts. Some people don’t like this as it makes your characters a bit blurry. However, I find that the smoothing effect is more desirable.

GNU/Linux, BSD, Unix-like, etc

On a Debian based system (which includes Ubuntu), you can install the ttf-kanjistrokeorders and ttf-kochi-mincho packages. (Note: ttf-kanjistrokeorders is not available in the standard Ubuntu packages. You will have to enable the Universe repository)

On other systems you will have to have a font system installed that handles true type fonts, like XFS. If you have XFS installed, here is an explanation on how to install the font.

JLDrill

Japanese Language Drill Program

Links: