Re: How to handle the jargon file?

[Bob Hilliard <hilliard@flinet.com>]

Dave Swegen <dave@recursive.prestel.co.uk> writes:

> Just curious really, but which format does the dict-jargon package use?

     The dict-jargon package stores the ASCII file in dictz compressed
format, and displays straight ASCII text.   (dictz's compression
uses the same algorithm as gzip, and files can be read with zless, but
dictz files are compressed in chinks of about 64k and indexed, which
means only the appropriate chunk must be de-compressed to locate and
display an entry.

     I have wondered if it is appropriate to keep so many versions of
jargon in debian.  My conclusion was it is.  With dict one requests a
word, and gets the definition from all installed dictionaries, which I
find helpful.  Some words have meanings in conventional English which
differ from the hackers' usage.  While there is a great deal of
overlap between jargon and the foldoc, there are many entries that
are in one but not the other.  

     However, dict does not allow one-click access to cross
references, which is provided by the hypertext version - a big help
for just plain browsing.

     I don't know if the info-version supports cross references or
not.  The info browser provided by emacs19 doesn't.  

     Incidentally, there may be a fourth version of jargon on the
system.  According to dpkg -l, I do not have jargon_4.0.0-3 installed,
but I can access it through emacs.  Either dpkg is confused, or a
version of jargon is packaged with emacs19.

     Since the different packages containing jargon present it
differently, I think it is desirable to keep them in Debian, so users
can choose which version(s) they wish.

Bob 
-- 
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  |_)  _  |_       Robert D. Hilliard    <hilliard@flinet.com>
  |_) (_) |_)      Palm City, FL  USA    PGP Key ID: A8E40EB9