Note: This project was originally called “Terminator,” however when searching for domains, Terminator was unavailable so I bought Terml.io instead.

It’s been a while since I’ve actually coded something other that Mozilla-related things, but as of two days ago, I’m proud to announce my latest project: Terml.io. Terml.io finds definitions for flashcard style words a user types into a terms file and returns the definition and the term in a nifty little definitions file.

In my school, our AP History classes require flashcards to receive a curve on our test. The amount usually ranges from 70-100, and on rare occasions, maybe 50-60. After surveying people at my school, I concluded that it takes most people about five minutes per flashcard – three minutes to look up the definition, and two minutes to write the information. This means that it takes someone about eight hours and twenty minutes to do all of their flashcards. Split into three hours a day, this takes someone just less than four days to finish.

Because my program automatically retrieves the definitions, it gets rid of that three minutes and only takes two minutes to do one flashcard. That equals three hours and twenty minutes to finish. Whereas the manual way of looking up the term and writing down would take you almost four days, working three hours a day, my program reduces this to one day in three hours.

My plans for this service are to turn it into a web application and allow users to paste in their terms to retrieve definitions, and come back to review these saved sets at any time. This entire service will be free, so that anyone can use this service after creating an account. This decision was a tough one, given that I will soon have to pay web hosting fees, and need to pay off my domain purchase. However, I read an inspiring article written by Dave Margulius, the CEO of Quizlet on his blog, detailing why educational software should be free for all.

I believe this program will be popular among high school and college students, given the amount of time it saves. Think about it. By using my program, you could save enough time to:

  • Watch 7 more 42 minute episodes on Netflix
  • Watch 16 more episodes of The Office
  • Take a 5 hour nap
  • Run 1 1/2 marathons
  • Fly to Seattle from Dallas
  • Watch The Chamber of Secrets 2 1/2 times

Excited yet? Stay tuned for more announcements about the development and release of Terml.io.