From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Tim X Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Can I build a dictionary in my Emacs? Date: Sat, 28 Nov 2009 09:50:46 +1100 Organization: Rapt Technologies Message-ID: <87vdgvwpix.fsf@lion.rapttech.com.au> References: <87vdgyx9lb.fsf@ymail.invalid> <87zl69vsq3.fsf@lion.rapttech.com.au> <4b0fb9e9$0$269$14726298@news.sunsite.dk> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1259365253 8180 80.91.229.12 (27 Nov 2009 23:40:53 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 27 Nov 2009 23:40:53 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Nov 28 00:40:46 2009 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1NEAQf-0001N4-AG for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 28 Nov 2009 00:40:45 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:54709 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1NEAQe-0003ji-TQ for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Fri, 27 Nov 2009 18:40:44 -0500 Original-Path: news.stanford.edu!usenet.stanford.edu!news.glorb.com!news2.glorb.com!news.astraweb.com!border5.newsrouter.astraweb.com!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/23.1.50 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:QUY7B9tCVozFMVtJYgnbxfdegPI= Original-Lines: 31 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 2baa73d4.news.astraweb.com Original-X-Trace: DXC=fm=]FVBo0da:LXj0CA`3KmL?0kYOcDh@jEE63Zc8>UegFX0m^Ug[IEi3jG8S6WC]DkkF?U^T\VPdl Original-Xref: news.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:175127 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:70201 Archived-At: "Colin S. Miller" writes: > Tim X wrote: >> >> Rather than build/write your own, look into emacs support for spell >> checking and see if you can add your word definitions to that existing >> mechanism. Less work and easier to maintain in the long-term. > > I think the OP wanted a dictionary that provides the definition of a word, > not just a word-correctly-spelled-p test. > Thats a good point. In that case, I'd look at adding a dictionary to one of the dict servers (don't know if the OP is on windows or Linux, but fairly straight-forward for Linux) and then using one of the emacs interfaces to dictionary servers. This would mean all that needs to be done is generate the definitions file. All the interfaces are then done, including interfaces from other things in addition to emacs. If that is still too far off the mark for what the OP wants, I'd consider looking at edb or even just a simple sexp bassed structure that can easily be read/written to a file and maybe creating an emacs forms front-end to make querying and adding new words easy. A simple sexp based structure will be reasonably efficient for quite a large number of words and definitions. Tim -- tcross (at) rapttech dot com dot au