WEBSITE · PHP · JAVA APPLETS · 2012
Efficient Chinese
My first website, hand-built in PHP, HTML and CSS, with Java applets for reading Chinese faster. The speed reader still runs: try it below.
PHP
XHTML & CSS
MySQL
Java applets
Efficient Chinese was my first website, built by hand in 2012 while I was living in Tianjin: twenty PHP pages on a set of shared includes, strict XHTML and a single CSS layout, with lessons, a members’ area and Java applets for reading Chinese faster.
The speed reader moved a grey pointer through a passage at whatever pace you set, then told you how long you had taken. Alongside it were a spacer, which split unspaced Chinese into words, and a vocabulary finder.
Browsers dropped Java applets years ago, so the speed reader below runs on CheerpJ, a Java virtual machine compiled to WebAssembly. The code is the 2012 original with three small changes: it reads its lessons from this page, it no longer spins while it waits, and it copes with a shorter list of fonts. The lesson is my own writing, from 2012.
TRY THE SPEED READER
The original Java applet, running in your browser through CheerpJ. The first run downloads a Java runtime from cheerpj.com, so give it a moment.
Press Read to load the lesson and start the clock, then Pointer to set a pace; the slider changes the speed. Press Stop when you finish and it tells you how long you took.
Audio played the lesson recordings on the old site; they aren’t included here. It works best on a computer.
