Wenlin Software for learning Chinese

Wenlin Software for Learning Chinese (Chinese:文林; pinyin:Wénlín; literally: "Literature forest") is a software application designed by Tom Bishop, based on his experience of the needs of learners of the Chinese language, predominantly Mandarin. It contains a dictionary function as well as a text reader/writer function for reading and creating Chinese text files. Flashcards of new characters can also be compiled to aid in learning. By pointing the cursor at a Chinese character the software looks up an English word, and vice versa, working like a dictionary. If a word is selected out of context this "could be extremely misleading for Chinese language students" (note however that this review is rather dated and may not apply to the current version). The Wenlin software can recognize files in Unicode, GB 2312, Big5, and HZ format.