Hi everyone... I'm here as I had been working on an app that was going to be a basic Esperanto "taster" course, with films, music, pronunciation snippets, info and quizzes. I had been working on the coursework part of it with someone who was going to do the coding, but he had a lot of other projects on the go and I've got to the point where I'm thinking about coding it myself. I've done a bit of BASIC, HTML and MUD coding in my time, so buzztouch looks ideal for me. Can't wait to get stuck in! Oh, one thing that will be absolutely essential is Unicode support - I see from previous posts that that has already been mentioned, so I hope it works...

If you're just going to be adding 'films, music, pronunciation snippets, info and quizzes' you pretty much won't need ANY coding knowledge! Which is a big bonus. If you struggle with anything PM me. N

That's what I was hoping - I had a look at some other apps created in buzztouch and it looks feasible. I had been working on a course that was designed to be done as an app - so it's got explanations of grammar, word lists and so on (with buttons linking to MP3s showing how the word is pronounced), and then multiple choice exercises to test comprehension. Then at the end there would be a "where now" section with links to websites, some examples of Esperanto music and video and so on. It was intended to be like a virtual flyer; we already do lots of online courses and have stands at shows etc., and the idea was that if you meet someone who says "you speak Esperanto?!", after you've got past the obligatory "what is that/didn't that die out ages ago/does anyone actually speak that now" business, you can say "actually, there's a free app if you want to try it". Hopefully if we can keep it under 50 MB (it is 50 MB isn't it?) then all those iPhoners can download it as a spur of the moment thing. I have the best of both worlds myself (iPhone, Android tablet) so was going to test it on myself first, once I've got hold of the compilers. But first, I have to get what I've already written into code. That's the tricky part... offer of help much appreciated. :D

Hi @Strigulino, Welcome to buzztouch! Sounds like a very interesting app you're working on. I recall quite a few years ago (like 12 years) that I knew a guy who was big time into Esperanto. Then I kinda never heard anything about it again! Nice to know it's still around. Don't hesitate to post if you have any questions! Mark

Oh yes, don't ask me how many speakers there are. We don't know. :) Estimates range between a few tens of thousands to 2 million. There's quite a few of us rabbiting away, though. I'm such a tech-lover I had the idea of doing a little taster course ages ago, but it never got off the ground as I always had to hand the coding over to someone else; no longer, it seems. As you can imagine, a language invented for international communication is doing very well on the Internet, and there are already a few apps for Esperantists - keyboards that include the accented characters, dictionaries of course - but not much for the interested outsider really. There are some "courses" but they seem to be of the "holiday language" variety, in that they teach some phrases but nothing about the grammar or structure, and seeing as Esperanto grammar and structure was designed to be easy, that's a bit of an omission... There are lots of good free course websites and dictionaries already, so this was really just to get Esperanto on the iOS and Android platforms so that it's visible, and hopefully Esperanto groups/organisations/publications will use it as a publicity tool. A virtual handout. Should be relatively easy to translate it into other languages once it's done. I'm preaching again. Sorry. :) I should try not to do that. Anyway, I was working on a course that was designed to be done as an app, and I was at a Language Show on our stall last weekend and someone asked me how my app was going. Nowhere, as the chap who had volunteered to code it is a professional developer and therefore has other jobs that will help him put food on the table. So yes, the actual course part is half written. I have a framework of what goes in what lesson, lots of the blurb, some test soundbites, and I'm reasonably competent with things like Word and Paint Shop Pro to make pretty pictures. Esperantujo being the friendly place that it is, once I have a working prototype I'm sure that I can get people to offer up examples of video, music and so on to link into it. I have a feeling it shall not be entirely plain sailing, but I do have some advantages in that I'm trying to do something that's mainly text, it's for a niche but active target market, and I don't really give a monkeys about making money from it. :D Oh, and before you ask, Buzztouch spelt with Esperanto characters would be "Buztuĉ". If I was translating it I'd probably put "Zumtuŝo" (hum-touch-thing) (pronounced "Zumtoosho"). Praying that the accents work properly... (they do!)

I'm bouncy. :D After some huffing and swearing and much watching of videos and reading walkthroughs (thank you everyone) I have managed to make an app! Fiddled with some plugins, downloaded it, compiled it, got my tablet talking to my laptop. It works! It displays the Esperanto accented characters! I have worked out how to make a menu button link to an HTML file for the bulk of the teaching materials, and how to do a multiple choice quiz. I've worked out how to change the picture at the top, but haven't bothered yet. I've tinkered with the colours. I'm going to rest on my laurels for a bit now. But it's definitely going to work. At least on a Galaxy Tab. A rather elderly one now, but I can prove to my potential backers that it works and show them a functional beta version, which is an excellent start. Honestly couldn't have done it without all the excellent videos, walkthroughs and plugins - keep them coming!