Debian Package a Day ([info]debaday) wrote,
@ 2004-08-26 08:00:00
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dictd - Dictionary Server
dictd is a TCP based server that allows a client to access dictionary definitions from a set of natural language dictionary databases.

Many dictionary databases have been packaged for debian. They are discussed in more detail in the file /usr/doc/dictd/README.Debian.gz

Either dict-gcide or dict-wn is essential for a useful English language dictionary server. It is strongly recommended that both be installed. If you are interested in computer terminology, it is recommended that one or more of dict-jargon, dict-foldoc, and dict-vera also be installed.

The client program, dict, is packaged in dict*.deb If you are running a server, you will want the client for all machines in your network, and for testing server operations.

Vince M. pointed out...
...the entire dictd system, and all the related packages.

It's pretty cool, its a network accessible dictionary server, with numerous Debian packages for foreign language translation, dictionary, thesaurs, etc. Then small simple clients can share the entire dictionary system. It is blazingly fast compared to NFS mounting a plain text dictionary off a server.

I have dictd installed on my large basement server, with numerous dictionaries installed into it.

My wife and I both have kdict installed on our workstations, providing a nice GUI and my laptop. My other machines make do with the dict command line client.

More information on this package can be found on the Debian web site.
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[info]arricc
2004-08-26 08:23 am UTC (link)
Didn't realise it was so flexible. I only installed it as it was an option for an irc bot I'm hosting and I keep forgettings its actually on the server.

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[info]rfunk
2004-08-26 08:30 am UTC (link)
I often find that some package I want depends on some dictionary which depends on dictd, or some useful text file I want depends on dictd even though I don't want to use dictd to get to it. So I often end up with dictd installed even though I never use it. :-(

Why don't I use it? Because www.m-w.com is more universally available to me, and quite easy to get to when I can just type dict:someword into Konqueror's Location box. I can do similar things with other online dictionaries.

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[info]miguelitof
2004-08-26 09:19 am UTC (link)
Yeah, but konq sucks. LOL

Actually, Konq is fine, I'm just a firefox fan. Still, there are extensions for Konqueror that enable the same functionality as konq's "dict:" using dictionary.com.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]miguelitof
2004-08-26 09:17 am UTC (link)
Would it be possible to integrate this with ispell/aspell? I'd love to be able to use this in place of the standard dictionaries.

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[info]toastfiend
2004-08-26 01:45 pm UTC (link)
I always use the gnome applet for my dictionary lookups, but found it very slow until I installed my own dictd server locally. There are other benefits such as being able to use the dict-devil package to make it show entries from The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce as well as real definitions, which is always a plus :-)

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Devil's dictionary
[info]toykeeper
2004-08-26 01:56 pm UTC (link)
What? Those aren't real definitions?

:)

(Reply to this) (Parent)
essential for writers
[info]toykeeper
2004-08-26 02:05 pm UTC (link)
I keep dict, dictd, and about a dozen dictionaries on my notebook, as a writing aid. This is very fast, gives me more information about words than almost anything except the OED, and works even without a 'net connection.

BTW, don't forget dict-moby-thesaurus. There's nothing quite like getting a hundred synonyms for almost any word you can think of. :)

If I can ever remember, dictd and related packages will be going on my PDA, too.

Now, if only they'd release everything2.com in dictzip format... :)

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