On Tue, Nov 17, 2009 at 12:31 AM, Samuel Morrison <[email protected]> wrote: > > I do not see a contradiction between using spaced repetition, which I want, > and preventing access to decks. You fail to explain how those two concepts > naturally exclude each other by their very nature. >
There may be some confusion as to what "write access" means. If you don't use an operating system that has file-based permissions, the concept of "write access" isn't obvious. The operating system must allow users to write to the files that contain the deck information because Mnemosyne writes out information that is used for keeping track of information it uses to determine how often it needs to show certain cards using its SRS (spaced repetition system) algorithm. This is what most people who are responding here mean by write access - the fact that the operating system must allow you to write to the deck files in order to save the relevant information about how well you're doing with certain cards so it knows which ones to show more often. >From an application perspective, you might be thinking of "write access" as the ability to add/remove/edit the contents of a "deck". I don't think there's any way to "lock down" cards in a way that people can't do this from Mnemosyne. Part of the larger sense confusion here might be that Mnemosyne trusts that users are mature enough do the right thing. The assumption of this kind of trust lets the developers focus on making Mnemosyne a really great flashcard program - adding that other functionality might be possible but it takes time and doesn't really make Mnemosyne any better of a flashcard program. The concept of locking down a deck isn't necessary when you start with this assumption. If I don't want a deck to change I just won't change it - I don't need any external mechanism that prevents me from changing it and I probably wouldn't use it if it did exist. Your particular environment seems like one in which you can't trust the users, and I think that's where the mis-match is. You can, as others have suggested, try to secure the deck files through some external method - either via per-student user accounts with appropriate permissions, some sort of per-student storage (e.g. USB drives), or some clever encryption scheme. It sounds like your resources are limited such that these aren't feasible. Mnemosyne is really great at what it does - SRS based flashcards for memorization of lots of different types of information. It doesn't seem like that's exactly what you're looking for, so you are right to look elsewhere. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "mnemosyne-proj-users" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/mnemosyne-proj-users?hl=.
