philolog.us

I love this app. Unfortunately the new update has removed support for larger fonts. Due to visual problems, I have to increase the size of all text using Apple’s built in accessibility options. This used to work well with Philolog.us, but now only the search words on the left of the screen are enlarged. The dictionary entries themselves continue to appear in a font that is too small for me. Please update the app so that it will work as well as it used to or make the old version downloadable once again!

First, some due praise: this is a very useful app. The combination of Greek and Latin, and the automatic switching of keyboards to accommodate each is invaluable to anyone who is working back and forth between the two languages. The color coding of definition information is also pleasant and effective. Overall, it's a very well designed app. The requests (posted here because the support site is unresponsive, alas): First request: it would be useful to allow the user to review the next definition without having to go back to the main list every time. Explanation: often a user is interested in a family of similar words. These are typically shown alphabetically on the main list. It would be very useful to allow the user to read the first of these, and, from the definition screen itself, be able to read the next definition, without always having to go back to the main list. This may seem minor, but if someone is looking at a dozen words at a time, the overhead of going back and forth quickly becomes excessive and tiresome. Second request: it would be immensely useful to provide links between Latin and Greek. Explanation: often Latin words are derived from or related to earlier Greek ones. One of the admirable features of this app is that these are usually highlighted in blue. Given that the app already contains the Greek definitions, it would be very useful in the already highlighted words became active links from the Latin to the Greek. If this proved to be too difficult to implement, then, at least, there could be a mechanism for tapping on such words and automatically populating the Greek search field. I hope that these comments are useful, and that they will find their way into some future update to this already admirable app. Thank you.

This app is a must-have for all students and scholars who read Greek or Latin, but cannot always lug around heavy dictionaries with them. Thank you to the developer for fixing a bug in the previous version!