Dictionary for Sony PRS500/5 (autorun from SD card)

[mkaluza]

Hi.
Let me say hello at first
Inspired by this dict application I've developed something of my own. The main difference is that text input is based on T9 algoirthm similar to this in cell phones.
The application itself is not yet complete as it is meant mainly as a testing ground for the T9 functionality.

Advantages
- supports national chars - it doesn't actually care what the input file is as long as it's utf-8. Handling of national characters is for now done in a crude kind of way - it just strips them to ascii letters and treats as such - for most times this shoud do just fine. But it can be (and will be) changed
- search time doesn't depend on size of the dictionary
- easy implementation of multiline translations, since it uses offsets (and I will add length too) - if you have for example longman CD, and a way to extract data from it, the explanations there are large - multiline.

What works:
2-9 are letters as labeled, 0 is a space and 1 is symbol (but I think there are none there.
Cursor up/down - toggle between alternative versions (as in cell's)
cursor left - delete char (deleting the first char returns an error and doesn't refresh the screen, but it's deleted)
Enter - search.

What doesnt work:
- search will only work after whole word, as it is in the dictionary, is entered. So entering 'abbandon' won't generate any result (yet), but 'abbandonare' will
- there's no way - for now - to go to next (alphabetically speaking) word
- changing dictionaries obviously, but it's just a demo for now

My final goal however is to write a simple (or not so simple) text editor, and then a planner/organizer, which I'd find very useful on this device. (For fun I'd like a simple shell too ;D )

Install:
As usual - unzip the contents to the root of sd card.

Comments and thoughts are welcome.
I once again want to stress, that it's not meant to be a fully functional dictionary yet...

[=X=]

Hi mkaluza,
Great to see another tool for the PRS-505!

I strongly recommend you start a new thread as the benefits of doing so are many fold. Most importantly you will be able to add updates to the first post making it easy for users to easily find your future updates.

=X=

[JulesReader]

All,

I'm a new 505 owner and new to this forum. I just wanted to say thanks to you all for the dictionary utility. This was one of the things that almost made me decide on a Kindle, but very happy to have the Sony without it ... and now very happy to have the Sony with it. LOL To anyone new to the forum who hasn't loaded the dictionary yet, a note of caution. DO NOT over complicate things by trying to follow along with the techie stuff. LOL Load the card stuff on the card and the prs stuff on the internal memory of the reader (and add the wb dictionary file back in under the dictionary directory) and you're done. Works like a charm.

Thanks again!

Jules

[jerryn]

I was thinking about mapping one of the number keys. Hold down the 0 key for
4 seconds to fire up the dictionary. This way we son't break the sd insert switch.

[=X=]

Hi All,
Thanks to mkaluza excellent contributions I've been able to add a soft key launcher to the dictionary. This way the user is no longer required to insert-reinsert the SD Card to get the dictionary to load. Just hold down the "0" button and the dictionary will launch.

Since this is a back door way which tricks the system into thinking the card has been inserted the time is still about 5-20sec to load. (The time depends on the size of the SD Card.

INSTALL
Unzip the file and place the autorun.js in the directory below.

<SD DRIVE:>\Sony Reader\Software

=X=

[Abisha]

Originally Posted by =X=

Hi All,
Thanks to mkaluza excellent contributions I've been able to add a soft key launcher to the dictionary. This way the user is no longer required to insert-reinsert the SD Card to get the dictionary to load. Just hold down the "0" button and the dictionary will launch.

Since this is a back door way which tricks the system into thinking the card has been inserted the time is still about 5-20sec to load. (The time depends on the size of the SD Card.

INSTALL
Unzip the file and place the autorun.js in the directory below.

<SD DRIVE:>\Sony Reader\Software

=X=

I am going to have to give this a go the moment I'm back at home!

[Abisha]

This is really silly on my part. I downloaded this dictionary about a month ago, and I've been so busy with school and work that I completely forgot about it, though I'm trying to get it functioning now. Unfortunately I'm running into an error and I'm hoping someone could point me in the right direction.

So the first thing that happens is I'm prompted with "Dictionary dictionary.text was...
Please press "Choose Dictio..."

I navigate to "Chng dict." and press enter. I then enter the name of the dictionary as instructed (Not case-sensitive and w/o extension). I subsequently receive the message "Dictionary X was not fou...
Please press "Choose Dictio..."
This turns into an endless cycle. I'm wondering if I have the dictionary in the wrong directory? Are there any other possible errors that I could be making?

[=X=]

The dictionary files need to be installed on the sony internal memory. Under

<drive:>\database\media\dictionary

make sure the file is saved under all lowercase. The script is not case sensitive but the OS is.

=X=

[rasbadar]

Originally Posted by =X=

Hi All,
Thanks to mkaluza excellent contributions I've been able to add a soft key launcher to the dictionary. This way the user is no longer required to insert-reinsert the SD Card to get the dictionary to load. Just hold down the "0" button and the dictionary will launch.

Since this is a back door way which tricks the system into thinking the card has been inserted the time is still about 5-20sec to load. (The time depends on the size of the SD Card.

INSTALL
Unzip the file and place the autorun.js in the directory below.

<SD DRIVE:>\Sony Reader\Software

=X=

Hi,

this does not work for me with version 0.87 and the 14 MB wb.txt file.
When I press and hold 0 my 505 reboots.

Any ideas?

ras

[=X=]

Originally Posted by rasbadar

Hi,

this does not work for me with version 0.87 and the 14 MB wb.txt file.
When I press and hold 0 my 505 reboots.

Any ideas?

ras

The same thing happened to me recently.

Holding the "0" does not cause a reboot. I suspect what is happening is during the disk scan the reader is crashing, which in turn causes the reader to reboot.

If you try it again after the reboot it should work.
=X=

[rasbadar]

Originally Posted by =X=

The same thing happened to me recently.

Holding the "0" does not cause a reboot. I suspect what is happening is during the disk scan the reader is crashing, which in turn causes the reader to reboot.

If you try it again after the reboot it should work.
=X=

Hi,

no such luck.

After the reboot, the dictionary is shown. If i then go back to my book and press "0" again, it reboots again.

Any ideas?
Can I switch on loggin?

btw. I have the "newest" hacked firmware installed and localized version.

[=X=]

Try changing the number "0" to another number.

Yes do this by modifying the autorun.js file.
Search for the text 'doHold0' to 'doHold9'.

Then reinstall the autorun.js file

[klx14]

The soft key launch change does not work for me (unmodified version 0.87 does work like a charm, however). The dictionary is launched OK upon insertion of the SD card, subsequent pressing and holding of the '0' button causes a hang (circular symbol is showing, device must be reset) or sometimes causes the device to reset immediately.

Changing the '0' to '9' or '5' did not alter this behaviour.

I have a UK firmware 1.2 with some PRSCustomizer tweaks. Maybe the soft key hack is not compatible?

[exelinguy]

Is there a way to not have it autorun?

[scottsan]

I've been away from the forum for a while, so please forgive any perceived ignorance.

Many months ago I tried to make use of the sd card-based dictionary app on my prs 505 running with the updated firmware, but was unsuccessful, nothing happened at all when I installed the sd card.

It seems from what I've recently gathered here that some changes/progress have been made. I would really like to try using the dictionary app again.

Could someone post links to, if not the actual most up-to-date files necessary, as well as simple and easy to follow directions for installing the files and getting the app to function.
I am a simple GUI user with no programming skills/knowledge, but did successfully install the customization app and customized my prs 505.

Getting the dictionary app to work would be icing on the sony cake.

Thanks for you kindness.
Scott