kgowen@cie.uoregon.edu (Kevin Gowen) (11/10/90)
This may not be the correct newsgroup for this, but here goes:
Playing around with anonymous ftp, I discovered an internet site,
cc.sfu.ca (128.189.32.250) that had available for download 8 archived
text files, webster1.zip, webster2.zip,..., webster8.zip. Each file is
simply a list of dictionary words in alphabetic order. Added together,
there should be about 200,000+ words in all of these files. Each file
is about 100-110K bytes. Except for webster8.zip. This file is 0 bytes
long. Looks like something went wrong when it was uploaded. This is
frustrating because I have a shareware ms-dos spelling checker that
enables you to add words to its dictionary from a file of words. Does
anyone know another ftp site where I can get my hands on on a good
version of webster8.zip? If I can add all the words from these
"webster" files to the existing dictionary, I will have one kick-ass
spelling checker...
-kevin
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kgowen@cie.uoregon.edu Just too cool to have a .sig file
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"Politicans say more taxes will solve everything.
And the band played on..."
emv@ox.com (Ed Vielmetti) (11/10/90)
In article <1990Nov9.202538.25634@ariel.unm.edu> kgowen@cie.uoregon.edu (Kevin Gowen) writes:
version of webster8.zip? If I can add all the words from these
"webster" files to the existing dictionary, I will have one kick-ass
spelling checker...
And it will not be legal to use it.
--Ed
(without paying someone some money for the rights)sean@ms.uky.edu (Sean Casey) (11/15/90)
emv@ox.com (Ed Vielmetti) writes: | version of webster8.zip? If I can add all the words from these | "webster" files to the existing dictionary, I will have one kick-ass | spelling checker... |And it will not be legal to use it. This is quite irresponsible. There is no evidence that said dictionary is illegal or of limited redistribution. Perhaps if Ed will provide such evidence, he won't be sued. Just another example of knee-jerk Usenet lynching. Isn't it great? Sean -- *** Sean Casey <sean@s.ms.uky.edu> *** ``HaaAhh Huhhhhhh!'' -James Brown (quote corrected by oz@nexus.yorku.ca)
scott@mcs-server.gac.edu (Scott Hess) (11/16/90)
In article <16368@s.ms.uky.edu> sean@ms.uky.edu (Sean Casey) writes: From: sean@ms.uky.edu (Sean Casey) emv@ox.com (Ed Vielmetti) writes: | version of webster8.zip? If I can add all the words from these | "webster" files to the existing dictionary, I will have one kick-ass | spelling checker... |And it will not be legal to use it. This is quite irresponsible. There is no evidence that said dictionary is illegal or of limited redistribution. Perhaps if Ed will provide such evidence, he won't be sued. From the describtion, I gather that this is a _spelling_ dictionary. Webster's has a copyright on the definitions, but you can put together a list of the words in Webster's without any problems. The words themselves cannot be copyrighted, just the ordering of them. Removing the definitions (and the pictures, of course), and putting what's left in alphabetical ordering should be fine. -- scott hess scott@gac.edu Independent NeXT Developer (Stuart) GAC Undergrad (Horrid. Simply Horrid. I mean the work!) <I still speak for nobody>
dan@wet.UUCP (Daniel Tauber) (11/17/90)
The work Dr. Webster did cataloging American English and his name are in the public domain. That is why umpteen Webster's dictionaries exist all from different publishers. Webster was the first person to pay serious attention to American English as a distinct language from British English. Dan Tauber ias1005@sfsuvm.sfsu.edu <== Until mid-December, 1990 wet!dan@cca.ucsf.edu <== Anytime
lee@sq.sq.com (Liam R. E. Quin) (11/22/90)
emv@ox.com (Ed Vielmetti) writes: | If I can add all the words from these | "webster" files to the existing dictionary, I will have one kick-ass | spelling checker... Actually you'll have a dreadful one. Almost every possible typing error will be listed as an obscure word, an thou so do. The Shorter Oxford (I haven't seen Webster's) lists many of the variant spellings used by Milton and Shakespeare, for example. I don't know if the lists are copyrighted, but see Doug McIlroy's paper on Unix spell for some interesting ideas on spelling checkers. Lee -- Liam R. E. Quin, lee@sq.com, SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, +1 (416) 963-8337
robert@isgtec.uucp (Robert Osborne) (11/23/90)
In article lee@sq.sq.com (Liam R. E. Quin) writes: [about a spell checker with all of websters being "great"] > Actually you'll have a dreadful one. Almost every possible typing error > will be listed as an obscure word, an thou so do. The Shorter Oxford (I > haven't seen Webster's) lists many of the variant spellings used by Milton > and Shakespeare, for example. But if you broke the dictionary into several lists (hopefully not too costly in terms of lookups) you could give messages like: alsdkjf: not in dictionary <old english word>: *VERY OBSCURE* only in The OED <something greek like>: *OBSCURE* in The OED and Webster's <something wierd>: *UNCOMMON* not in Standard Dictionary .ie It's a word, but are you *sure* it's the one you want. This would be very powerful! In keeping with the charters of these groups: does any one have source for a dictionary that breaks down matches this way? Rob. (When I worked for the OED Project at UofWaterloo I played with the on-line version; just about every random string I typed matched to some word in the dictionary!) -- Robert A. Osborne ...uunet!utai!lsuc!isgtec!robert or robert@isgtec.uucp
ken@csis.dit.csiro.au (Ken Yap) (11/26/90)
>[about a spell checker with all of websters being "great"] >> Actually you'll have a dreadful one. Almost every possible typing error >> will be listed as an obscure word, an thou so do. The Shorter Oxford (I >> haven't seen Webster's) lists many of the variant spellings used by Milton >> and Shakespeare, for example. >But if you broke the dictionary into several lists (hopefully not too >costly in terms of lookups) you could give messages like: > >alsdkjf: not in dictionary ><old english word>: *VERY OBSCURE* only in The OED ><something greek like>: *OBSCURE* in The OED and Webster's ><something wierd>: *UNCOMMON* not in Standard Dictionary > >ie It's a word, but are you *sure* it's the one you want. > >This would be very powerful! This is easier said than done. You'd also have to separate out all the discipline specific words. The classic example I read about is where "action" becomes "cation". In the final analysis it might be better to catch the common mistakes and fix the doubtful ones by hand.
lee@sq.sq.com (Liam R. E. Quin) (11/27/90)
robert@isgtec.UUCP (Robert Osborne) sez: >lee@sq.sq.com (Liam R. E. Quin) writes: >[about a spell checker with all of websters being "great"] >> Actually you'll have a dreadful one. Almost every possible typing error >> will be listed as an obscure word, an thou so do. [...] > But if you broke the dictionary into several lists (hopefully not too > costly in terms of lookups) you could give messages like: > > alsdkjf: not in dictionary > <old english word>: *VERY OBSCURE* only in The OED > <something greek like>: *OBSCURE* in The OED and Webster's > <something wierd>: *UNCOMMON* not in Standard Dictionary Well, I do have the Shorter Oxford word list, which lists parts-of-speech, "rare", "obsolete", etc., so I have a shellscript: sqlee!lee> sodfind thine thine Archaic Adjective (Shorter Oxford) thine Standard Pronoun (Shorter Oxford) thine Archaic Adjective (Webster's) thine Standard Pronoun (Webster's) thine Standard Other (Webster's) thine Archaic Adjective (Merged) thine Standard Pronoun (Merged) thine Standard Other (Merged) qlee!lee> sodfind disally disally Rare Verb (Shorter Oxford) disally Archaic Verb (Webster's) (my 1837 Johnson's Dictionary lists this `disally' as a word used by Milton, but thse days it's a typo for `dismally'!) I have sometimes thought about using this for a spell-checker, but I seem to be a little busy :-( Lee [PS: Johnson also lists ``Ascii'' as a word.... Other lovers of antiquarian books might like to run to their First Folios of Johnson or Bailey and look it up.... ] -- Liam R. E. Quin, lee@sq.com, SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, +1 (416) 963-8337