thors@umn-cs.CS.UMN.EDU ('Olafur Thorsteinsson) (02/08/89)
I posted this to the places I thought would be most likely to be able to give me info (of course, where else would I put this). I hope I found at least one good spot. Is there a good on-line dictionary available for UNIX systems out there? If so, where can I find out more about it? Are there many, and then which one can you recommend? Many thanks for your time and responses. 'Olafur Thorsteinsson thors@umn-cs.cs.umn.edu
bware@csm9a.UUCP (Bob Ware) (02/08/89)
In article <11113@umn-cs.CS.UMN.EDU>, thors@umn-cs.CS.UMN.EDU ('Olafur Thorsteinsson) writes: > > Is there a good on-line dictionary available for UNIX systems out there? > If so, where can I find out more about it? > Are there many, and then which one can you recommend? > I have been thinking about starting an on-line dictionary of Unix and computer terms and this is a good time to ask what others think. The idea is to spot terms (particularly new terms) used on the net and then get definitions for them and add to the dictionary. Initially, the definition might come from the person who used the term on the net. Periodically (every 3 to 6 months?), the dictionary would be posted to the net and corrections or additions requested. Advantages of such a project might be: 1. New terms in our rapidly changing industry would become available quickly. 2. It would be widly available to the very people who need it the most. 3. Schools could put it on-line in some form convenient to new students. 4. Schools could make hardcopy available in computer work areas, if desired. Disadvantages: 1. Initially, it would contain only a small percent of the Unix and computer terms (but the intial terms would perhaps be the newer ones that do not yet appear in already published dictionaries). 2. It would be lots of work (but I would hope to get help from contributors on the net). I might be willing to start such a project if there is interest (and I can get my boss to agree). Questions: 1. I someone already doing something like this. (on-line, not hardcopy)? 2. Is it worth doing? 3. Any ideas about how it should be done? I don't know how much response this article might get. If you see lots of articles, then send e-mail instead and I will summarize for the net. Bob Ware, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Co 80401, USA (303) 273-3987 bware@csm9a.colorado.edu bware@mines.bitnet isis!csm9a!bware ucbvax!nbires!udenva!csm9a!bware
jik@athena.mit.edu (Jonathan I. Kamens) (02/09/89)
In article <11113@umn-cs.CS.UMN.EDU> thors@umn-cs.CS.UMN.EDU ('Olafur Thorsteinsson) writes: >I posted this to the places I thought would be most likely to be able to >give me info (of course, where else would I put this). I hope I found at >least one good spot. > >Is there a good on-line dictionary available for UNIX systems out there? >If so, where can I find out more about it? >Are there many, and then which one can you recommend? > >Many thanks for your time and responses. The MIT Student Information Processing Board has in our software library an on-line dictionary whose data files, I believe, consist of Webster's Seventh Unabridged Dictionary, or something like that. The dictionary works on a client/server model, with the database living on the server and users running the client to send work lookup requests to the webster daemon. I am currently the maintainer of the software. The only place I've ever seen it compiled and used is on 4.3BSD, so I don't know what other strains it will work on. Also, when I inherited the software it had been modified by the previous maintainer to use Sun Remote Procedure Calls, rather than direct network socket connections, for client/server communcation. The RPC code is supposedly #ifdef'd so that you can turn it off and fall back on socket code, but I've never used the socket code so I don't know if it works. Besides a text client and a server, we also have an xwebster client which runs under the X Window System Version 11, and I am working on rewriting that client to use the X toolkit since the old version isn't very reliable on things like color displays. In fact, it breaks them. Finally, there's an awful lot of cruft in the webster source tree whose purpose I simply have not had time to figure out, let alone clean up. If there is enough interest, I will tar and compress the whole source tree and make it available for anonymous ftp from the SIPB's timesharing machine, charon.mit.edu. If you are interested in acquiring the sources, please send mail directly to me and let me know. If I manage to make the sources available for ftp (Give me a while, classes just started here! :-), I will post a follow-up message to this one. Finally, if you get the sources from me, and you make improvements/fixes in them, PLEASE send me patches! Jonathan Kamens USnail: MIT Project Athena 410 Memorial Drive, No. 223F jik@Athena.MIT.EDU Cambridge, MA 02139-4318 Office: 617-253-4261 Home: 617-225-8218