tomrecap / nomenclator

A mobile-first Latin vocabulary tool built with AngularJS & Rails

##Nomenclator

Nomenclator is a new, mobile-friendly front-end for Perseus. It's the easiest way to look up unfamiliar words while reading a Latin text. I built it while learning AngularJS.

###How To Use It Click on any word to add it to the vocabulary list. The vocab list is in the right side menu, which you can open by pulling on the text or tapping the hamburger icon. Right now there are only a couple of texts, but I'm working on adding more.

###Cool Features

• Uses AngularJS to add words to a JavaScript object and bind the object to the vocabulary list.
• The backend is a RESTful API that uses Nokogiri to look up words in Perseus under Philologic and translate the results into a JSON object with vocabulary data.
• Lots of plugins
  • Uses Angular-xeditable to make vocabulary list items customizable.
  • Implements the side drawer menu with Snap.js, via angular-snap. I tried mmenu and ng-mobile-menu, but Snap.js turned out to be better for complex menu items. (For instance, each of my menu items includes a form for changing the vocabulary word.)
  • Styling done with TopCoat, via topcoat-rails. This was my first time using a styling framework, and it is really convenient.
• Uses sprites for icons.
  • I made these by hand; no TopCoat.

###To Do

• Make vocab list items editable. √

• Make it possible to re-order the list.

• Make list items collapsable. √

• Make a mobile stylesheet. √

  • or a separate mobile interface? √

• Add citations to vocabulary entries.

• Add error handling.

  • What should happen when the user requests a word that's not in the dictionary? √

• Fix bug where clicking on white space grabs the entire passage. √

• Download all of the texts in Perseus's library.

• Process texts into usable form.

  • Basically, every word needs its own <span> tag to be clickable.

• Build out site for browsing or finding texts.