Mathieu Tozer's Dev Blog

More notes that I took while thinking through today's developments...

I'm going to create a new interface to the UI AND to the class that will allow me to initialise a new dict Protocol object. It will then be available to the user to query while the program is running, and the results will be displayed on the right.

Hmmm

But how is this going to help words?

Within the Words system, whenever there are
1. Undefined words
2. A suitable dictionary available wither locally or remotely

it should try to automatically find definitions for each undefined words.

Fetch from the ManagedObjectContext all instances of the Word entity that have not been defined.
Order them in some way (or not). Importance??
Start from the top of the list and go to the bottom. For each Word object in the array.
[Dictionary define:word]
Place the definition

But I'm getting such varied quantities back from the dictionary. And that's only from the one server, in one database! What about when the possible servers and databases increases!?
The exact results are unpredictable, but they will be within reason. And we know how to handle definition objects well enough. Generally, the first few results fired back from the dictionary are the most relevant.
However, we cannot safely disregard the other definitions.
If the default is inappropriate, then the user must decide which definition they want to be 'Number 1', and promote it to the top of the definitions list. This is the definition that is used for quizzing, word lists etc, however, the alternative definitions are still available.

In the UI, all definitions will be available via an auxiliary window. The main definition will of course be viewable against the original word.

I could probably go right ahead and put the DictProtocolDictionary class right into my existing words prototype, but I want to make sure it is ready and will be able to do everything that I want it to do. But I suppose I can always add to it and modify its behaviour later.

What I think I need to workout next is the UI for this system. Words now has the ability to connect to any server that implements the dict protocol. How is the user going to
1. Create a new dictionary.
2. Specify which dictionary they want to use.
3. Remove Dictionaries.

I also have to make sure there is an internet connection available when the dictionary tries to connect, and to fail gracefully when there isn't (rather than crashing which is what lookup does at the moment!)

Possibly, the user can set any number of dictionaries themselves (or select a suggestion from the list) which then associates itself to the actively selected language.
The special case is that it's not a foreign language to you, in which case you are looking for only definitions, not translations to words. There might be a checkbox to allow the user to specify whether the dictionary is going to be used as translation or a definition dictionary.

I just sketched a preference pane which allows you to choose language, add and remove available dictionaries, check whether they are active or not, a text field to change the server and database, and below that the other dictionary settings.

The application will take from these available dictionaries their definitions.

Therefore dict class should have Cocoa compliant Getters and Setters so I can hook them up to an IB GUI.

Before I set up preferences and the like in Words proper, I need to make sure that the classes can handle all the setters and options etc within the cocoa environment. Can I create more than one dictProtocol dictionary and change it's database etc dynamically. This should be developed in the Lookup application.

Aaand here's the fruits of today's labours. What fun! I can't wait to make it easy for anyone to connect to any dictionary in the world with such a simple interface.

(Click) and look! It's translated cheese to fromage!

Of course, the end goal is to hook the above with what is in this image:

Use the services menu to add you existing word lists (or just a single word) to Words, and have it find the meaning for you, and then save it for later.

fyi

THESE are the dictionaries that reside on dict.org alone!

Database list:
gcide
        The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
wn
        WordNet (r) 2.0
moby-thes
        Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
elements
        Elements database 20001107
vera
        Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms (Version 1.9, June 2002)
jargon
        Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001)
foldoc
        The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03)
easton
        Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
hitchcock
        Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary (late 1800's)
bouvier
        Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
devils
        THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993)
world02
        CIA World Factbook 2002
gazetteer
        U.S. Gazetteer (1990)
gaz-county
        U.S. Gazetteer Counties (2000)
gaz-place
        U.S. Gazetteer Places (2000)
gaz-zip
        U.S. Gazetteer Zip Code Tabulation Areas (2000)
--exit--
        Stop default search here.
afr-deu
        Africaan-German Freedict dictionary
afr-eng
        Africaan-English Freedict Dictionary
ara-eng
        English-Arabic Freedict Dictionary
cro-eng
        Croatian-English Freedict Dictionary
cze-eng
        Czech-English Freedict dictionary
dan-eng
        Danish-English Freedict dictionary
deu-eng
        German-English Freedict dictionary
deu-fra
        German-French Freedict dictionary
deu-ita
        German-Italian Freedict dictionary
deu-nld
        German-Nederland Freedict dictionary
deu-por
        German-Portugese Freedict dictionary
eng-afr
        English-Africaan Freedict Dictionary
eng-ara
        English-Arabic FreeDict Dictionary
eng-cro
        English-Croatian Freedict Dictionary
eng-cze
        English-Czech fdicts/FreeDict Dictionary
eng-deu
        English-German Freedict dictionary
eng-fra
        English-French Freedict Dictionary
eng-hin
        English-Hindi Freedict Dictionary
eng-hun
        English-Hungarian Freedict Dictionary
eng-iri
        English-Irish Freedict dictionary
eng-ita
        English-Italian Freedict dictionary
eng-lat
        English-Latin Freedict dictionary
eng-nld
        English-Netherlands Freedict dictionary
eng-por
        English-Portugese Freedict dictionary
eng-rom
        English-Romanian FreeDict dictionary
eng-rus
        English-Russian Freedict dictionary
eng-spa
        English-Spanish Freedict dictionary
eng-swa
        English-Swahili xFried/FreeDict Dictionary
eng-swe
        English-Swedish Freedict dictionary
eng-tur
        English-Turkish FreeDict Dictionary
eng-wel
        English-Welsh Freedict dictionary
fra-deu
        French-German Freedict dictionary
fra-eng
        French-English Freedict dictionary
fra-nld
        French-Nederlands Freedict dictionary
hin-eng
        English-Hindi Freedict Dictionary [reverse index]
hun-eng
        Hungarian-English FreeDict Dictionary
iri-eng
        Irish-English Freedict dictionary
ita-deu
        Italian-German Freedict dictionary
jpn-deu
        Japanese-German Freedict dictionary
kha-deu
        Khasi-German FreeDict Dictionary
lat-deu
        Latin-German Freedict dictionary
lat-eng
        Latin-English Freedict dictionary
nld-deu
        Nederlands-German Freedict dictionary
nld-eng
        Nederlands-English Freedict dictionary
nld-fra
        Nederlands-French Freedict dictionary
por-deu
        Portugese-German Freedict dictionary
por-eng
        Portugese-English Freedict dictionary
sco-deu
        Scottish-German Freedict dictionary
scr-eng
        Serbo-Croat-English Freedict dictionary
slo-eng
        Slovenian-English Freedict dictionary
spa-eng
        Spanish-English Freedict dictionary
swa-eng
        Swahili-English xFried/FreeDict Dictionary
swe-eng
        Swedish-English Freedict dictionary
tur-deu
        Turkish-German Freedict dictionary
tur-eng
        Turkish-English Freedict dictionary
english
        English Monolingual Dictionaries
trans
        Translating Dictionaries
all
        All Dictionaries (English-Only and Translating)
web1913
        Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
world95
        The CIA World Factbook (1995)