The whole point is the algorithm [1] which how Anki schedules your cards. It is based on Supermemo's [2], and improved a lot over the years, so I think it's the most optimal from all of the SRS software's out there.
Also I think Anki has a very simple UI, not sure how people can find it complicated. You just add cards, and by review you press a button, that's all. Cards are just HTML, but you can edit them with the built in WYSIWYG editor.
Anki is great for learning programming languages!
See the Janki method [3] and another blog post [4] how to use it effectively. I found the last one especially helpful, and started learning Programming languages based on that. It works great.
You can also learn linux commands, whatever.
People also asked for sharing cards. It is very important to make your own cards progressively and learn from those, because you know what you need to emphasize for the info to stick. Just use small information on every card, use your own terms, and it will be much easier to learn, compared to some random deck you downloaded.
Is see in this comment and its answers, "most optimal", "more optimal".
An algorithm is optimal, not more, not most, just optimal.
For the case going here, you will have difficulty to prove any optimality, since the process involves humans. Efficient would be a better term than optimality.
developer of http://fluxcards.de (beta) and fluxcards android app (hobby) here.
Anki's spaced repetition algorithm is quite good and I definitely plan to boast on using a better one just like brainscape.com does but in the end, more important than which algorithm to use is to use spaced repetition at all. It just allows you to learn 20 times more with 20 minutes of time per day than I ever could back at school and far too few people know about that. If you never tried, please do it for a week or better longer as the effect kicks in only after at least some days of training the system.
In the end the actual spaced repetition algorithm used is not all that important, as long as easy stuff vanishes while hard stuff stays around.
I'm very interested in all learning software. It's hard to see what your software does different than the others though. Do you have screenshots, videos or something like this?
The SRS algorithm uses scoring prioritization instead of intervals and I've found it to be more optimal than Supermemo/Anki.
I was an Anki desktop user for over 8 years, but I always became overwhelmed by the number of reviews due that would accumulate if I didn't stay active with the app almost every day (review hell). I've found the priority SRS model much easier when studying in small chunks (5-10 minutes at a time, 2-3 times a day).
Ankiapp appears to be something different. The web app Ankiapp links to below is not Anki's web app, and Ankiapp's site is copyright Admium Corp. instead of being attributed to Damien Elmes.
I study 10-30 minutes a day once (have a lot of cards in a lot of topic) and I just don't miss a day no matter what. I use the Anki mobile app if I can't use the computer on a day. I'm very lazy, but even I find this method very easy to do. I just made it as a habit; wake up, do the Anki review quickly and that's all.
Also I prefer a desktop app, because it's open all day, and whenever I encounter a new info, I immediately put it into Anki!
Question: are there disadvantages to spaced-repetition or memorizing in general? Could it be that by memorizing new things efficiently you forget older things, or that other abilities deteriorate?
I have been using SuperMemo for more than eight years and have more than 70,000 flashcards on a variety of subjects and languages, and once I got the hang of proper flashcard creation I have been able to remember almost anything I want: http://www.supermemo.com/articles/20rules.htm
Look at the above article for rules on how to make proper flashcards. SuperMemo, Anki, etc. are all good at helping you remember information, but if the flashcards are not correctly made, it's like putting water into an engine that requires gasoline. The thought that all explicit memorization is bad is a total myth; if you break any of the 20 above rules, flashcards will suffer (Trying to memorize before you understand, not learning things in list form, etc.).
I've used it for 8 months, and did not observe any negative side effects in the nature of those you mention.
One thing that I would consider somewhat of a disadvantage of an explicit repetition system is that you need to really take care of how you engineer the questions to match the way you would normally encounter the knowledge they refer to in real situations.
For learning languages, I used to make my own flashcards and then search audio that contained the word.
Then I discovered that there are apps with pre-filled cards that already have the audio such as MosaLingua (http://www.mosalingua.com/en).
I've been doing the GRE vocabulary decks in Brainscape on my iPhone and I like the algorithm. It seems to be a variant of the Leitner Algoritm with 5 buckets. I'm enjoying it.
The whole point is the algorithm [1] which how Anki schedules your cards. It is based on Supermemo's [2], and improved a lot over the years, so I think it's the most optimal from all of the SRS software's out there.
Also I think Anki has a very simple UI, not sure how people can find it complicated. You just add cards, and by review you press a button, that's all. Cards are just HTML, but you can edit them with the built in WYSIWYG editor.
Anki is great for learning programming languages! See the Janki method [3] and another blog post [4] how to use it effectively. I found the last one especially helpful, and started learning Programming languages based on that. It works great. You can also learn linux commands, whatever.
People also asked for sharing cards. It is very important to make your own cards progressively and learn from those, because you know what you need to emphasize for the info to stick. Just use small information on every card, use your own terms, and it will be much easier to learn, compared to some random deck you downloaded.
[1]: http://ankisrs.net/docs/manual.html#what-spaced-repetition-a...
[2]: http://www.supermemo.com/english/ol/sm2.htm
[3]: http://sivers.org/srs
[4]: http://www.jackkinsella.ie/2011/12/05/janki-method.html