naniJSore is a collection of HTML + Javascript files aimed at learners who want to self-test their knowledge of the Japanese language. The original version was created in 2011, but it has since been re-written from scratch in order to make the source code more readable and extensible.
All source code (and related files, such as images and auto-gen scripts) can be downloaded from GitLab. If you can’t (or don’t want to) download anything, I usually have a recent version available on my website.
A few years ago (probably sometime around 2007), I used to test my knowledge of Japanese verb/adjective conjugation rules by selecting words at random, writing down how I thought they should be conjugated on a piece of paper, and comparing what I’d written with the examples from about.com:
As you may imagine, this was slow, prone to error, and consumed a lot of paper. I therefore created a basic Javascript page to automate the validation process, eventually adding some extra conjugation types based on information provided by Jim Breen’s WWWJDIC.
I’ve since added separate pages for other aspects of the language, such a nouns (when I realised that I didn’t actually know many words, and needed to memorize some) and kanji (as another way to force myself to memorize more than I already knew).
It’s important to note that this isn’t intended to be a “Learn How To Speak Japanese” website; my language skills are nowhere near good enough to attempt something like that, and there are already lots of places on the internet which do a better job than I could possibly manage. Instead, my aim is to write a set of useful “self-testing” pages which can be used as an aid to memorization (and possibly as a way for me to improve my Javascript/CSS skills whilst I’m at it).
The one exception is the kana page, which was inspired by the sadly now-defunct KanjiSITE hiragana/katakana pages. I found the KanjiSITE to be really useful when I first decided to learn about the Japanese language way back in 2003, so hopefully the information on the kana page will be similarly useful to someone.
The various HTML/Javascript/CSS pages are designed to be self-contained, and do not require third-party utilities such as jQuery or Bootstrap. It’s possible to use naniJSore on a computer without an internet connection, which can be useful if you’re in an area with infrequent (or very slow) internet access.
The only “external” resource dependency is an optional line in default.css,
which attempts to load the Noto Sans font from Google Fonts, to ensure that CJK
characters can be displayed correctly; this isn’t mandatory and can be removed.
Pages should work correctly on just about any modern browser. Personally, I use Firefox and Chrome on my development machine and Chrome for Android on tablets. Phone-sized devices should work correctly but aren’t officially supported due to their rather small screen size (and because entering text is rather fiddly).
In addition to the main HTML/Javascript/CSS files, a couple of “helper” scripts are used to auto-generate various things:
update_layout.py replaces the boilerplate HTML in all pages with the layout
defined by _layout.html. It has been tested with Python 2.7 and Python 3.4.update_everything.sh converts the contents of readme.md into HTML (tested
using discount 2.1) and then runs update_layout.py to add the “layout” HTML
to it (along with every other HTML file).There are also a few test cases for the Javascript files in js/util/tests. As
with the helper scripts, these are “support” files, so aren’t necessary for the
pages themselves to function.
The current version of the codebase is very much a work in progress; issues not yet addressed are outlined below:
It would also be nice to include the following bits somewhere:
…plus LibreJS stuff: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/javascript-labels.html
Copyright © 2015 Thomas Glyn Dennis
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the “Software”), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
I originally made this for myself as an automated self-testing excercise, so it is possible that I’ve made some silly mistakes. If you come across any, send me an email.