Re: ITP IIRC IMHO and more

[Bob Hilliard <hilliard@flinet.com>]

Carsten Leonhardt <leo@debian.org> writes:
 
> Josip Rodin <joy@cibalia.gkvk.hr> writes:
> 
> > I'd like to see dict-vera, too, one day...
> 
> That's a good idea; I'll look into that.
> 
> Any helpful pointers? (Especially on the format of a dict-file)

     I haven't been able to locate a specification for the format of a
dict database, although I am sure I saw it once.  You can look in any
of the *.dict.dz files for examples (the dictzip format is compatible
with the gzip format, but /usr/bin/lesspipe doesn't know about the
.dz extension, so you must use zless.

     The database must be formatted, and indexed, then, preferably,
dictzipped.  The formatters provided with the dictionaries from the
DICT Development Group are specific to each dictionary, and are
difficult to adapt to another dictionary without breaking.  The DICT
project is trying to develop a more universal formatting tool, but it
is a challenging task.

     Anyone who tries to package another dictionary should look at the
sources for the dictd package, and for the sources for
dict-jargon_4.2.0, which I plan to upload within a day or two.

     After reading Josip's message yesterday, I decided to try to
produce dict-vera, but it you would like to do it you are welcome to
it.  I was planning to ask for a URL for the raw database.  (I looked
for it in /usr/share/doc/vera/copyright, but couldn't find it.)

Bob
-- 
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  |_)  _  |_       Robert D. Hilliard    <hilliard@flinet.com>
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