Interesting discussion, unfortunately i did not find it earlier.
Andy, if you like, have a look at this posting…i was playing around with the dictionary files:
http://theravadin.wordpress.com/2008/03/27/cst4-additional-dictionary-resources/
Your idea of adding real-time grammar information is superb! Now, if Frank would only use my instant-dictionary lookup code from the PTR, that would be cool!
Some things i would like to see:
1.) Bookmarks, bookmarks, bookmarks…
2.) in connection with 1.) the ability to write (contextual) notes and save them.
3.) Compound analysis
4.) Andy’s suggestions of a TTS: YES! Andy, are you working on a voice? I did some programming with .NETs speech engine. It is very simple to use and easy to implement in .NET -
with metta,
Lennart
]]>When a word is selected, the meaning string is put inside a skeleton HTML document like so:
<html>
<head>
<style> some CSS, different for English and Hindi </style>
</head>
<body>
<p>
the definition
</p>
</body>
</html>
Hence the paragraph separator I gave earlier, </p><p>. The definition is already surrounded by one set of p tags.
So any HTML tags can be used in the definitions as long as they produce valid HTML when embedded in the above document.
]]>If I understand correctly, the dictionary window and dictionary definitions support HTML markup tags?
That would be neat. It would allow bold and other markup to make the dictionary entries more readable.
In any case, support for paragraph tage is still very useful!
1) Is it also possible to use the line break tag ?
peace from
Andy
]]>1) To make a multi-paragraph definition, use </p><p> as the separator.
2) In the current design, grammatical notes cannot be added to the dictionary as separate entries because all words must be Pali words. This is because the words in the “Words” list on the left are converted to the current global script preference.
4) The whole dictionary is read into memory whenever it is used, so changes in the dictionary file would show up as soon as the program is restarted.
I was just testing a bit more.
1) It would be nice if you could put a Back button in the dictionary. Right now, all the links have to be reciprocal which is very fragile and time-consuming. It would be nice if the Back button would allow a person to keep going back to their first search of the current session.
The ability to go Back at least once would already be a big help.
peace from
Andy
]]>About the dictionary.
Your current dictionary format is word (one line) definition (one line).
You brilliantly use <see> tags for creating hyperlinks on the fly.
The dictionary is a Unicode text file that is easy to edit.
After release of CST4 it is still possible to continue updating the dictionary - adding and editing entries. People would only have to download the new file to benefit from the work of others.
1) Question - Can you add something to the one-line definitions? Could you Replace /r/ with a return character? This way, it is possible to add definitions on more than one line.
2) Note: The Grammar. The hardest thing in Pali. Because you use <see> tags, you (or anybody else) could easily add grammar to the dictionary. Example below. This would be a huge time-saver for Pali students.
3) Note: Compound words. Your <see> would also be perfect for this.
This is not a “real” Pali example. It’s just to show what is possible.
Example:
dhammaṃ
<see>masculine noun</see> <see>accusative case</see>/rr/1. the doctrine/r/2. the teachings of the Buddha/r/3. a tiny event
dhammavinaya
<see>masculine noun</see>/rr/<see>dhamma</see>+<see>vinaya</see>/rr/1. The teachings of the Buddha/r/2. a lovely thought, indeed!
masculine noun
In Pali, nouns have a gender - <see>masculine</see>, <see>feminine</see> or <see>neuter</see>. The gender changes the way that the noun is inflected./rr/Example 1. whatever/r/Example 2. whatever2
masculine
used by nouns with examples
feminine
used by nouns with examples
neuter
used by nouns with examples
So, I think you can see how handy this would be for helping people learn grammar in context, building better definitions and also for helping people understand the components of compound words.
All that with only a few grammar entries, adding information to the words and a Replace for return characters.
4) Question: does CST4 generate an index for the dictionary when it is being installed? In other words, if someone just replaced the dictionary file with a new file (having the same name) would the new file work in CST4?
peace from
Andy
]]>Thanks for the answers. Answers to your questions:
1) Yes about font installation but not necessarily CST. I had CST4 open when I reinstalled Pali Text Reader. PTR seemed to find a conflict with the one of the fonts (which I assume CST had active). You might have the problem the other way around (ie somebody has Open Office or a different program open while you are installing).
Google has a neat new feature in Google Office where you can make a little slide show and plug it into a web page (it’s just a piece of javascript). Perhaps a little slide show on the future CST4 home page would help to avoid installation issues? You could put it on the page where people download the NET version tester?
2) About tabs vs other options - only time will tell… ;-)
3) DdD - It works for everything except from a browser window into a text box on a menu bar. I’ve noticed that a lot of language software (like dictionaries) also have this issue. It is annoying that a person can’t select a word and dnd it into the search box on many programs (when the search box is a text box in a menu bar).
4) TTS is coming. If CST4 has a shelf-life of several years it might be good to add TTS now. Adding the COM Interop.SpeechLib.dll would only add about 160K to your distro and the TTS programming is trivial and bug-safe.
5) If you do want get the dictionary popup working then PTR has the code in Subversion on sourceforge. You can look at the code without registering. Since you already have mshtml working, it might be pretty easy to get the popup dictionary defs working (I really like that feature - a lot less mouse clicks and keystrokes - important when dealing with 950,000+ words).
Another implementation might be : hover will grab the word and send it to the dictionary window for lookup (like Ctrl-D does now). That would be superb. With the dictionary on the right-hand side of the screen and hover-lookup - it would save thousands of clicks and keystrokes per user and there would be no popup blocking the reading area.
peace from
Andy
]]>1) Not at this time.
2) and 6) The CST application uses a multiple document interface (MDI) design, like the CSCD. I considered various options, including a tabbed document interface (TDI) like Firefox, a hybrid TDI/MDI design like UltraEdit or sidebars like in IDEs or the Firefox history sidebar. For now, I think the MDI design is most flexible, although I intend to eventually allow the windows to be undocked and dragged outside the main window.
Using tabs or sidebars rather than floating windows does not make it any easier to add new functionality to the program.
3) You can drag and drop from a CST book into another application, such as Word. How did you test drag and drop?
8) No plan to add any Pali typing support into the program. This is best handled by keyboard drivers.
9) The dictionaries are the same as were included in CSCD3. I agree that it would be helpful to have full declensions and conjugations included in the dictionary to help those who are less familiar with Pali grammar.
11) Did you have a problem with the font installation?
12) Good idea.
Re: open source. We have no plan to release the source code at this time.
]]>I forgot a couple of very important questions.
1)Is CST4 under the GNU GPL so that all programmers who wish to create new Pali resources can benefit from the work?
2) If so, are you planning on putting the source code into the distribution or making it available from your future home page for the software?
peace from
Andy
]]>