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Shareable/centralizable dictionary server software? (WAS: Size of your dictionary)

From:Sai Emrys <saizai@...>
Date:Saturday, April 4, 2009, 2:59
Kaleissin's dict server plus seeing Sylvia's program (and David's)
plus this thread makes me think...

... are conlangers' needs (and languages) sufficiently similar that we
could make some sort of dictionary server that could be used by all?

In some cases it seems like there are harder requirements - eg
Sylvia's has a notion of 'seeds' (though I think this could be viably
glossed as a tree-structure of word roots).

If needed (or someone's concerned about control / privacy) one could
just make one's own copy of it and make extensions.

I'm kinda tempted to make an open source Rails project out of this if
there's sufficient demand. I could easily host it on the LCS server.

Sketching the requirements:
* every entry belongs to
- root(s) (e.g. _kitaab_ -> *ktb; same can be used for etymologies)
- language(s) (e.g. old fooish)
... and has:
- an xsampa, UTF8 romanization, and UTF8 custom font form
- multiple definitions / glosses
- multiple grammatical categories (some of which are included as
standards, eg 'transitive verb')
- multiple examples, each with:
-- intelinears / glosses of different kinds
-- multiple associate entries (i.e. entry:example is many:many)
* imports and exports specially formed flat files (e.g. XML, dict,
CSV) and minimalistic basic files in some form (eg simple word list or
CSV)
* nicely browsable (eg Sylvia's Kelen dictionary site)
* somehow integrates w/ CALS

Hypothetically nice?:
* support Google Gears or other offline nice manipulation (eg an
independent local cross-platform gui...?)


Any of you interested in
a) using such a thing centrally (e.g. if there were a website for it)
b) using your own instance of it (i.e. on your own server, or locally)
c) coding it (in Rails)
d) coding it (in something else)?

Or does this already exist in some form?

- Sai

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Arthaey Angosii <arthaey@...>