Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
I suspect there wouldn't be a real problem. The number of "words" (and hence the size of the index) isn't dramatically larger than that of a smaller dictionary; the real difference is in the length of the entry for each word. The Kindle doesn't load a whole book into memory; it just loads the single HTML or XML file corresponding to the part of the book you're reading.
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Yes that sounds exactly right to me. That's why you can have a really huge file in an epub--which is really just a big zipped file container--and yet have a book that performs pretty well in your reader if the content is split into many reasonable-sized files. Calibre defaults to 260K when converting and splitting large files, if I remember correctly. As long as the reader has everything indexed and can quickly find the file it needs, loading shouldn't be a problem.
With the OED, yes. I've always thought the essential diff between OED and regular dictionaries, is all the historical citations showing usage. Which is the stuff I really want.
I think it boils down to cost, and demand. As you said earlier, OED would probably have to charge a lot higher than most would be willing to pay. Their target market tends to be academic libraries. I'm thankful to at least have online access through the local library.