GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 309119
Off-line dictionary
Last modified: 2021-06-10 11:22:27 UTC
The current gnome-dictionary can't be used when off-line. Using the Wiktionary would allow it to use an offline database: http://wiktionary.org/
I've looked at the wiktionary web site, but I cannot find a way to download the thing (which would be mandatory for offline browsing). Also, when online, I cannot find a way to access the wiktionary without screenscraping... Are such tools available for remote dictionary access ?
It looks like Wikimedia is planning an API for Wikipedia and Wiktionary. There is interest in this for some other GNOME apps/components, I hear. Announcement: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/KDE_and_Wikipedia
All the data is downloadable at: http://download.wikimedia.org/ in database dumps format. However, this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Database_download#Static_HTML_tree_dumps_for_mirroring_or_CD_distribution seems to fit in with the use that we could do of the dictionaries.
*** Bug 309120 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Ubuntu bug about that: https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/gnome-utils/+bug/19227
As Gabriele Monti, it's possible to use offline dictionnaries by installing the dictd package. But a real bug remains, if no internet connection is present and someone makes a word search with gnome-dictionnary, then the program just hangs (This is easily noticeable with Compiz, the window becomes gray). The internet connectivity should be tested when the first launch is made with a timeout of 5 seconds for example. If no internet connection is possible, then show a message box warning the user about the issue (it's not very clear that Gnome Dictionnary should be used online in the first place) Also, the offline method using dictd should be described in the documentation and in the manpage (there is a hint in the manpage in the "see also" section, but I couldn't explore in this direction because ... you know ... no internet connectivity)
better still support text based dictionary format, which would be easier for users to create custom dictionaries. for example, the DSL format: http://informationworker.ru/lingvo.en/dslcompiler/dsl_examples.htm http://informationworker.ru/lingvo.en/dslcompiler/entrystructure.htm Goldendict uses it too. dictd is older technology, and making databases for dictd server is a big hassle. Perhaps a simple HTML based dictionary format would solve the need for offline dictionary. thanks.
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.