Dictionary engines
The requirements for candidate engines/clients are:
- can display reasonably complex entries (numbered senses, examples and their translations)
- supports some sort of point-and-wait/click/keypress in most/all applications OR supports tight integration with the main Office application on the OS
- allows creation of your own dictionary files
- is free
Windows
A list of dictionary clients and servers can be found at [http://www.dicts.info/offline2.php].
Candidate engines found so far:
- [http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa159694.aspx] - MS Office System
- StarDict - open-source, cross-platform solution (Linux/Mac/Win), quality unknown
- [http://www.lingoes.net/] - closed-source but free, open dictionary source format, requires the software author to compile the dictionary source to final dictionary files used by the application
- [http://www.babylon.com/] - closed-source, free application
Mac
For the Mac, the main engine is the one included in OS X Leopard (10.5), for which we already have a working solution.
For users of older versions of the OS, some of the open-source, cross-plattform solutions described for Windows or Linux could be an alternative. Unfortunately, StarDict (the only cross-plattform solution) does only work on Leopard (ie 10.5) as for now.
Linux
- StarDict - open-source, cross-platform solution (Linux/Mac/Win), quality unknown
Conclusion: StarDict
There is an XML format available for interchange of dictionary data, XDXF, described at [http://xdxf.revdanica.com/]. XDXF data can be used by StarDict (see above). Thus, the following scenario is within reach with little effort:
- convert from our formats to XDXF using XSL (the real work)
- install StarDict
- install the dictionary file
StarDict is free, open-source, cross platform, and supports point-and-click (or something like it).
StarDict short user guide
Mac
- Download StarDict
- To make it work for a non-admin account, run it once in an admin account.
- Dictionary files should be put in
/opt/gtk/usr/share/stardict/dic/
I have not been able to get the point-and-click function working on the Mac, but since we have a superior solution for that platform, it is not a real problem.
Win
- Download StarDict
- More to be written.
Linux
- Download StarDict
- More to be written.