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Bug 167366 - Please add more dict servers
Please add more dict servers
Status: RESOLVED OBSOLETE
Product: gnome-dictionary
Classification: Core
Component: general
git master
Other Linux
: Normal enhancement
: ---
Assigned To: gnome-dictionary-maint
gnome-dictionary-maint
: 137252 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
 
Reported: 2005-02-14 17:03 UTC by Reinout van Schouwen
Modified: 2021-06-10 11:22 UTC
See Also:
GNOME target: ---
GNOME version: Unversioned Enhancement



Description Reinout van Schouwen 2005-02-14 17:03:03 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.
Comment 1 Vincent Noel 2005-02-14 18:10:25 UTC
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 ? 
Comment 2 Reinout van Schouwen 2005-02-14 22:39:58 UTC
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.
Comment 3 Vincent Noel 2005-02-15 16:54:20 UTC
How does the StarDict format works ?
Does it require you to have all the definitions on your local machine ?
Comment 4 Reinout van Schouwen 2005-02-15 17:10:57 UTC
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.
Comment 5 Reinout van Schouwen 2005-11-12 21:07:04 UTC
Updating version.
Comment 6 Emmanuele Bassi (:ebassi) 2005-11-13 10:27:49 UTC
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.
Comment 7 Reinout van Schouwen 2005-11-13 12:56:53 UTC
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.
Comment 8 Emmanuele Bassi (:ebassi) 2005-11-13 16:41:54 UTC
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).
Comment 9 Emmanuele Bassi (:ebassi) 2005-12-16 23:49:21 UTC
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.
Comment 10 Reinout van Schouwen 2005-12-19 22:49:41 UTC
That would be good. Could we bring up the idea of running a dict server on gnome.org somewhere?
Comment 11 Emmanuele Bassi (:ebassi) 2006-01-15 00:23:19 UTC
> 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.
Comment 12 Reinout van Schouwen 2006-01-15 19:32:33 UTC
I can't find a sysadmin list on mail.gnome.org...
Comment 13 Emmanuele Bassi (:ebassi) 2006-01-21 11:44:21 UTC
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
Comment 14 Nguyen Thai Ngoc Duy 2007-08-25 14:58:37 UTC
Is it possible support queries to wiktionary.org?
Comment 15 Emmanuele Bassi (:ebassi) 2007-08-25 19:58:54 UTC
(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.
Comment 16 Mike McWay 2007-09-15 15:09:26 UTC
returning wikipedia results would be a much appreciated feature.
Comment 17 Reinout van Schouwen 2008-07-22 11:07:18 UTC
Also, it would be cool if gnome-dictionary could autodetect dict servers running locally.
Comment 18 antistress 2009-03-01 00:50:24 UTC
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 ?

Comment 19 Vincent Untz 2009-03-04 17:30:04 UTC
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.
Comment 20 Reinout van Schouwen 2009-03-04 20:35:57 UTC
(In reply to comment #19)

> You should probably file a bug for this.

Done, filed bug 574170.
Comment 21 antistress 2009-03-13 04:31:46 UTC
concerning wikimedia projects integration, note that Wikipedia Dump Reader allow to use wikimedia projects offline https://launchpad.net/wikipediadumpreader/
Comment 22 Emmanuele Bassi (:ebassi) 2014-11-02 10:48:14 UTC
*** Bug 137252 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 23 Emmanuele Bassi (:ebassi) 2014-11-02 10:50:12 UTC
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.
Comment 24 André Klapper 2021-06-10 11:22:30 UTC
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.