⚠️ Known Issues & Limitations

Current limitations and development priorities

Overview

FLEx Interlinear Copy Assistant is actively being developed and improved. While the core functionality works well, there are some known limitations and features that are being worked on.

This page documents current issues and the development roadmap. We welcome contributions from the community to help address these limitations!

Current Limitations

🔴 Single Example Processing Only

Impact: High

Description: The application currently processes only one interlinear example (one sentence) per clipboard paste. You cannot copy and paste multiple examples at once.

Workaround: Process examples one at a time. Copy and convert each example individually.

Status: This is a high-priority feature request. We are actively seeking contributors to implement multi-example clipboard support.

🔴 Buggy Manual Editor

Impact: High for manual entry users

Description: The built-in manual interlinear editor has several known bugs and reliability issues:

  • Cell splitting may not work correctly in all situations
  • Row deletion can sometimes cause layout issues
  • Data may be lost if not careful with edits
  • The interface can become unresponsive with complex edits

Workaround: Use FLEx or a spreadsheet application to prepare your data instead of relying on the manual editor. Only use the manual editor for very simple examples.

Status: A complete overhaul of the manual editor is a major development target. Contributions are welcome!

🟡 No Automatic Text Reference Capture

Impact: Medium

Description: The tool does not automatically detect or parse text source abbreviations and line numbers (e.g., TXT:12a) from the input data.

Workaround: Manually add text references to your LaTeX or XML output by editing the commented lines in the generated code (e.g., %\txtref{TxtRf\_\#}).

Status: This feature is planned for a future release. The logic needs to be implemented to automatically detect and parse reference information from FLEx output.

🟡 MS Word MathML Feature Disabled

Impact: Medium for Word users

Description: The Microsoft Word MathML output feature is currently disabled in the GUI due to implementation challenges:

  • The feature is not accessible on macOS (Windows only)
  • Requires complex platform-specific clipboard APIs
  • MathML is difficult to work with outside of Word
  • The implementation needs significant work to be reliable

Workaround: Use HTML table output and paste into Word, or use LaTeX and convert to Word format using pandoc or similar tools.

Status: We are researching a robust Windows-specific implementation. This feature may remain Windows-only due to technical constraints.

🟡 No Lightweight Windows Installer

Impact: Low to Medium

Description: The Windows version is distributed as a large portable executable (~41 MB) rather than a lightweight installer that downloads dependencies on-demand.

Current State: The portable .exe works but is large because it includes Python and all dependencies bundled together.

Future Goal: Create a Windows installer (using NSIS or similar) under 25 MB that:

  • Downloads and installs Python to the app directory
  • Installs dependencies locally
  • Creates a start menu shortcut
  • Can be hosted directly in GitHub repository

Status: This is a lower priority enhancement. The current portable .exe works fine, but a smaller installer would be more user-friendly.

Platform-Specific Issues

Windows

macOS

Linux

Compatibility Notes

FLEx Versions

This tool has been primarily tested with recent versions of FieldWorks Language Explorer (FLEx 9.x). It should work with TSV output from older versions, but this is not guaranteed.

LaTeX Distributions

The LaTeX output is designed for:

XLingPaper

XML output is designed for XLingPaper. The code structure should match XLingPaper's XML schema, but you must manually paste it into the XML source view (not the graphical editor).

Spreadsheet Applications

TSV output should work with:

Major Development Targets

These are the high-priority features and fixes we're actively seeking contributors to implement:

Feature Priority Description Status
Multi-Example Clipboard Support 🔴 High Allow copying and pasting multiple interlinear examples at once from FLEx or spreadsheets. Seeking contributors
Automatic Text Reference Capture 🔴 High Automatically detect and parse text source abbreviation and line numbers (e.g., TXT:12a). Seeking contributors
Manual Editor Overhaul 🔴 High Fix bugs and improve usability of the built-in interlinear editor. Seeking contributors
MS Word MathML Implementation 🟡 Medium Research and implement robust Windows-specific MathML output for Word documents. Research phase
Lightweight Windows Installer 🟢 Low Create an NSIS-based installer under 25MB that downloads dependencies on-demand. Future enhancement

Reporting Issues

Found a bug not listed here? Please help us improve the tool by reporting it!

How to Report an Issue:

  1. Go to the GitHub Issues page
  2. Click "New Issue"
  3. Provide a clear description of the problem
  4. Include:
    • Your operating system and version
    • Steps to reproduce the issue
    • Expected behavior vs. actual behavior
    • Screenshots if applicable
    • Sample input data (if possible)
  5. Submit the issue

Before Reporting:

Contributing Solutions

We welcome contributions from developers who can help address these limitations!

How to Contribute:

  1. Fork the GitHub repository
  2. Choose an issue to work on (or create a new one)
  3. Create a feature branch
  4. Implement your solution
  5. Test thoroughly
  6. Submit a pull request with a clear description

Areas Where Help is Needed:

Note: This project was developed through collaboration between human direction and AI assistance. Contributors should be comfortable working with AI-generated code and focusing on testing and refinement.

General Workarounds & Tips

If the App Crashes or Freezes:

If Output Formatting is Wrong:

If Clipboard Operations Don't Work: