GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 167366
Please add more dict servers
Last modified: 2021-06-10 11:22:30 UTC
Currently the dictionary utility only queries dict.org in English. The server livid.3322.org contains lots more, and even more servers are found on http://luetzschena-stahmeln.de/dictd/index.php. It would be good to offer a few more dict-server choices by default.
Sounds really good to me. I'm afraid most users won't even know that they can select another dict server, so the best option would be to change the default, I guess. However, I'm concerned by the availability of servers. Would it make sense to switch to http://livid.3322.org/lividict ?
I think that would make sense, but we should probably keep one or more fallback servers among which dict.org itself. If you want to make server availability a non-problem; consider switching to the StarDict format that doesn't require a dictd server; or introduce a dependency on dictd on the user's machine.
How does the StarDict format works ? Does it require you to have all the definitions on your local machine ?
According to http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:StarDict stardict comes with a format conversion program. The specification of the format is in the file /stardict-2.4.4/src/tools/DICTFILE_FORMAT in the tarball (http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/stardict/stardict-2.4.4.tar.bz2?download) Yes, it requires to have one or more dictionaries on your local machine.
Updating version.
StarDict dictionaries are not compatible with DICT files, so you end up with having to install them both, if you want to support them both. There's a DICT->StarDict conversion tool, and a library for parsing/querying, but it's written in C++. I'll see if I can write a parser for it in C, but this will have to wait, since I want the new code base to stabilise. Possibly, StarDict support will target 2.16. Also, there's a wikimedia -> DICT converter: this could enable support for wikimedia contents: all we would have to do is get a dump of wikipedia/wiktionary at release, or - even better - keep a dictionary server at gnome.org. We should talk to the sysadmin team for this, though.
As far as I understand, GNOME-dictionary already supports dict by talking to a dictd, only if you want to run a local dictd you need to install dictionaries. Is there a problem in using a C++ library? Why the need to (re)write a parser in C? Supporting wikimedia contents sounds like a good idea to me.
while the reverse is possible, you can't use a C++ library inside a C application; and, since the code base is in C, we would have to write a C parser for the StarDict format - otherwise we would have to rewrite Dictionary in C++ (which I really wouldn't do, as I don't know C++ that much).
creating a new dictionary source for RFC2229 servers for the new gnome-dictionary requires putting a specially-crafted .desktop file inside $(prefix)/share/gdict-1.0/sources (system-wide) or $HOME/.gnome2/gnome-dictionary (user). the .desktop file looks like this: [Dictionary Source] Name=source-name Description=My Dictionary Transport=dictd Hostname=dict.aioe.org before 2.14 an UI for not having to manually create the file will be added; in the mean time, I could add a few dictionary source files inside gnome-dictionary.
That would be good. Could we bring up the idea of running a dict server on gnome.org somewhere?
> That would be good. Could we bring up the idea of running a dict server on > gnome.org somewhere? the sysadmin list would be the right place. don't know if it can be done, but it's worth trying. as for other dictionaries, I've put a spanish-based and a french-based sources: these should go into the next 2.13.5 release and be included into 2.14. as soon as the next cycle begins, I'll create a couple of transports more, so that we could add other type of dictionary sources.
I can't find a sysadmin list on mail.gnome.org...
the list is private: you can contact the sysadmin team mailing to: gnome-sysadmin AT gnome DOT org other useful info are on the wiki: http://live.gnome.org/ContactSysadmins
Is it possible support queries to wiktionary.org?
(In reply to comment #14) > Is it possible support queries to wiktionary.org? > writing a transport for libgdict that returns the text from wikipedia/wiktionary is in theory possible. I have no plans, at the moment, for implementing such a transport, but anyone can try.
returning wikipedia results would be a much appreciated feature.
Also, it would be cool if gnome-dictionary could autodetect dict servers running locally.
i was expected a little bit more of gnome-dictionary that only returning wikipedia results For that i have Googlizer which can be configured for any search site and therefore for wikipedia i expect gnome-dictionary to be a full dictionary. Unfortunately there is no server for a french dictionary at present time and therefore gnome-dictionary is completely useless for me. Maybe there should be a dict server on gnome.org as suggested above or maybe gnome-dictionary could provide locally dictionaries for each langage ?
FWIW, http://www.dict.org/links.html links to this list of servers: http://www.luetzschena-stahmeln.de/dictd/ (In reply to comment #17) > Also, it would be cool if gnome-dictionary could autodetect dict servers > running locally. You should probably file a bug for this.
(In reply to comment #19) > You should probably file a bug for this. Done, filed bug 574170.
concerning wikimedia projects integration, note that Wikipedia Dump Reader allow to use wikimedia projects offline https://launchpad.net/wikipediadumpreader/
*** Bug 137252 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
coming back to this after years: it's *highly* unlikely that we'll ever add a DICT server on gnome.org, and it's also highly unlikely that GNOME will ever maintain dictionaries — those require a vast amount of resources, and especially editorial control. the most likely scenario is for the Dictionary to be a Wiktionary client, or be replaced by one.
GNOME is going to shut down bugzilla.gnome.org in favor of gitlab.gnome.org. As part of that, we are mass-closing older open tickets in bugzilla.gnome.org which have not seen updates for a longer time (resources are unfortunately quite limited so not every ticket can get handled). If you can still reproduce the situation described in this ticket in a recent and supported software version of gnome-dictionary, then please follow https://wiki.gnome.org/GettingInTouch/BugReportingGuidelines and create a ticket at https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-dictionary/-/issues/ Thank you for your understanding and your help.