prindle@NADC.ARPA (08/17/87)
From: prindle@nadc.arpa (Frank Prindle) I purchased the Pocket Writer Dictionary and found it severely lacking in a great many common words! So I made my own dictionary by adding to the PWD the full public domain dictionary from CP/M Spell 2.1. To do this, I made a little rubber foot to sit on the "A" key and sat a book on top. After twenty six iterations of this, I had the final product - well over 800 blocks on the 1571 diskette (though I did the updates in RAM disk). This is a super dictionary with undoubtedly over 40000 words. I never was able to figure out the format of the dictionary itself, though it seems to use some compressed (5 bit?) code to represent the data. I also have the Spell 2.1 dictionary alone in PW2 format but that isn't quite as complete. In any case, I don't consider myself totally insane and the "A" key approach isn't all that bad - probably less time is re- quired than deciphering the dictionary format and writing a program to translate the desired dictionary to that format. Sincerely, Frank Prindle Prindle@NADC.arpa
dar@cblpf.UUCP (08/17/87)
In article <3154@rutgers.rutgers.edu|, prindle@NADC.ARPA writes: | From: prindle@nadc.arpa (Frank Prindle) | | I purchased the Pocket Writer Dictionary and found it severely lacking in a | great many common words! So I made my own dictionary by adding to the PWD the | full public domain dictionary from CP/M Spell 2.1. To do this, I made a little | rubber foot to sit on the "A" key and sat a book on top. After twenty six | iterations of this, I had the final product - well over 800 blocks on the 1571 | diskette (though I did the updates in RAM disk). This is a super dictionary | with undoubtedly over 40000 words. I never was able to figure out the format | of the dictionary itself, though it seems to use some compressed (5 bit?) code | to represent the data. I also have the Spell 2.1 dictionary alone in PW2 format | but that isn't quite as complete. In any case, I don't consider myself totally | insane and the "A" key approach isn't all that bad - probably less time is re- | quired than deciphering the dictionary format and writing a program to translate | the desired dictionary to that format. | Sincerely, | Frank Prindle | Prindle@NADC.arpa Hey! Thanks for the suggestion, Frank. That is a damn good idea. AT&T Bell Laboratories David A. Roth Columbus, Ohio uucp: cbosgd!cblpf!dar