Now the question is: Can machine learning process texts and generate word lists with definitions for the other languages?
That would be one way to approach the lack of available data sets for languages that are not English.
Why I built a dictionary app
171–180 of 187 posts
Re: Why I built a dictionary app
#172Earlier quoted context omitted.
Exactly and I don't know why dictionary apps don't take advantage of it. I wonder if it's against App Store guidelines to make a dictionary app based on the built-in dictionary. There are a lot of dictionary apps out there but I think most developers miss the forest for the trees. I don't know why there's still not a single dictionary app that is blazing fast, use the built-in dictionary and have some common sense de…
Yep! Kotoba is quick and easy to use. It has the added benefit of being integrated with the system dictionary, so if you add any extra dictionaries to the system, such as foreign languages, they will also be immediately supported in Kotoba. Unfortunately: "App Store guidelines disallow using the built-in system dictionary to create a dictionary app" Write up on daring fireball here: https://daringfireball.net/linked/…
That's too bad. I wish there was an alternative App Store version that used another dictionary because I really like its design choices. At least I did, when I tried it on my iPhone, but I don't imagine they had drastic changes since then. I didn't stick with it because of weird limitations Apple has with sideloading apps. (IIRC, that 7 day limit was the deal breaker.)
Re: Why I built a dictionary app
#173I used a Casio electronic dictionary for many years. I bought it when I moved to Japan, then kept using it for several years after moving back to the US. You'd be surprised how often a word comes up that you assume you know, and, just to be sure you double-check and what-do-you-know, you were way off!
The pre-color dictionary models would wake from sleep instantly after opening the cover. Then you type your word in on a physical keyboard, glance at the definition, and then close it again. The AAA batteries would several months. Compare with a phone where you have to put in your password to unlock it, you type on a screen, the keyboard takes precious screen space where you need to display definitions, you have to recharge every day, etc.
But I absolutely love the ideas expressed in the post. Offline-first, data freedom, basic study support, simple layout. Data freedom, in particular, is something Casio's never had (using Oxford, etc.).
Done well, a good dictionary makes collecting words as fun as collecting Pokemon was.
Re: Why I built a dictionary app
#174Earlier quoted context omitted.
From the article: "I landed on the freeDictionary API that uses the Wiktionary as a source.".
Why didn't they just download the dumps via https://dumps.wikimedia.org/enwiktionary/ (as explained in https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Help:FAQ#Downloading_Wiktiona... ) Scraping, even via an api, is way less efficient imho.
They’re in wikitext, which looks to be considerably less semantic than the crawled data. I’m not sure that’s the reason, but it could be a reason.
Re: Why I built a dictionary app
#175Actually, iOS already has built-in support for dictionary and thesaurus. In any native text input field, select a word and choose Define or Look Up. The choice of dictionary is customizable; I usually choose New Oxford American Dictionary and Oxford Dictionary of English (not to be confused with the venerable Oxford English Dictionary). They are high quality dictionaries. They are basically the same except that the p…
And there is also a Do not disturb toggle in both iOS and Android so it is not necessary to go completely offline.
Re: Why I built a dictionary app
#176Well this is... eerie. I just released Stictionary[1] on Friday. It is an offline, ad free, dictionary that remembers words you look up. It gives a word of the day and provides (admittedly underfeatured atm) flashcards to review your word lists. It includes optional syncing to keep your word lists across devices. I've been holding off posting about it while i complete the website[2]. Love to see someone else had such…
I love it, it definitevely cover and unmet need, as a no native english speaker it is important to me to keep track of words that I have looked up, thank you, please let us know when it is available in android.
Re: Why I built a dictionary app
#177> No Lock-in This principle comes from the local-first software movement: users taking back data ownership so they can export and manipulate what they have created. I’d love for this to become a well-recognised badge of honor, bringing more visibility to lesser known tools. I built a couple of iOS apps that happen to use org as their portable file format. The fact that its org is less relevant. The iOS apps stand on…
+1 to this!
Support your local tool maker building on text!
My thoughts: https://braintool.org/2022/04/29/Tools4Thought-should-use-Or...
Re: Why I built a dictionary app
#178Actually, iOS already has built-in support for dictionary and thesaurus. In any native text input field, select a word and choose Define or Look Up. The choice of dictionary is customizable; I usually choose New Oxford American Dictionary and Oxford Dictionary of English (not to be confused with the venerable Oxford English Dictionary). They are high quality dictionaries. They are basically the same except that the p…
It’s a shame that it doesn’t remember the words you look up.
This, combined with a spaced repetition feature would be fantastic to have on board.
I always wondered if there is a private API/event to listen for to capture the lookups and store them for later.
Re: Why I built a dictionary app
#179I tried the same kind of offline popup dictionary w/ history, favourite 3yrs back for android, it also had a first-of-a-kind sentence parser to choose a word for meaning. Apparently android restricted access to clipboard & this feature became futile :-(
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=v1.f1nd.com.f1...
The blog for the same, https://medium.com/@iBharath462/android-paridhabangal-make-f...
Re: Why I built a dictionary app
#180Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why didn't they just download the dumps via https://dumps.wikimedia.org/enwiktionary/ (as explained in https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Help:FAQ#Downloading_Wiktiona... ) Scraping, even via an api, is way less efficient imho.
They’re in wikitext, which looks to be considerably less semantic than the crawled data. I’m not sure that’s the reason, but it could be a reason.
I'd say not the reason, since the wiki text is pretty semantic. the wiki source of https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/subbureau#English is:
==English==
===Etymology===
{{prefix|en|sub|bureau}}
===Noun===
{{en-noun|s|subbureaux}}
# A [[district]]-level public security bureau in [[China]].