Firmware 4.24.15676

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by the.Mtn.Man

It depends on what you mean by "up-to-date". The Webster's 1913 is sufficiently up-to-date for most purposes.

Agreed. This is the dictionary I grew up with. We had an India Paper Edition, so it wasn't quite as thick as the standard edition. Very nice line drawings on almost every page. I would start by looking up one word and then end up spending hours following the "links." Slang has changed, but I would say the 1913 dictionary is still about 98% relevant.

[geek1011]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

The Webster's 1913 is anything but. The various varieties of English have changed so much in the last century that relying on such an antique makes little sense. Shift happens, words change their meaning, or connotation, and a century-old fossil won't show any of that. For those times when one simply MUST know the meaning of an obsolete word or archaicism, go online to the OED. Or, if antebellum is for some weird reason a must, the Webster's 1913 is also available online.

I've actually found it quite valuable, and it has ~80% of the words I don't know and need to look up. I mostly read sci-fi/fantasy. I also read non-fiction reference books, but I use Wikipedia more than the dictionary for those.

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

I also started reading up about custom dictionaries to compensate for Kobo's feeble offerings. I never bothered. Just reading the processes involved for creating dictionaries, or using dictutil and the like makes my eyes glaze over.

I was also put off by the complexities and subtle breakage of custom dictionaries, which is why I started working on dictutil. Nearly everything there is to know about dictionaries can be found in dictutil and its documentation now. For installing dictionaries, it is now as simple as "dictutil install dicthtml-whatever.zip" (v3 custom-dict support is coming soon). For merging dictionaries, you just do "dictzip-decompile dicthtml-whatever.zip", then use "dictgen whatever.df whatever1.df" to merge them. For creating dictionaries from scratch, you can use the custom .df format, which will deal with all the hard parts for you (and PyGlossary can now output/input .df files).

Originally Posted by rtiangha

PyGlossary now makes it super simple to make Kobo dictionaries out of other formats (it even has a GUI!) but it doesn't have v3 support yet. But it seems to be actively developed so it's great (click on Code->Download ZIP rather than the version on the Releases page since the Kobo support in the July version is stale). However, it requires Python to be installed on your system, plus some extra modules installed by pip, so if you're Windows, while there are installation instructions at the bottom for Linux and Mac, it isn't entirely obvious on how to set it up on Windows (basically, after installing Python for Windows, you would open up cmd and type in those pip instructions, minus the sudo).

Yes, PyGlossary now supports Kobo dictionaries based on dictutil. It's still not completely finished yet, and there are still a few bugs left in it. But, in general, it works well now, and it can also output .df files for dictutil to use.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by anacreon

I have a typographical problem in -it, -it-en, -de-en (not -de), -es, -es-en, -en-fr, -fr-en (but not -fr), -en: the first one and a half bold characters are missing, both in the short and the full page definition. It could be the "increase available text area" patch since nobody mentioned it, but why not -de or -fr?

Does anything I've said in this post in the kobopatch thread help?

If you need to pursue this issue please can you do it in the linked kobopatch thread. People can get a bit upset when patching intrudes into the general firmware thread.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by geek1011

I've actually found it quite valuable, and it has ~80% of the words I don't know and need to look up. I mostly read sci-fi/fantasy. I also read non-fiction reference books, but I use Wikipedia more than the dictionary for those.


I was also put off by the complexities and subtle breakage of custom dictionaries, which is why I started working on dictutil. Nearly everything there is to know about dictionaries can be found in dictutil and its documentation now. For installing dictionaries, it is now as simple as "dictutil install dicthtml-whatever.zip" (v3 custom-dict support is coming soon). For merging dictionaries, you just do "dictzip-decompile dicthtml-whatever.zip", then use "dictgen whatever.df whatever1.df" to merge them. For creating dictionaries from scratch, you can use the custom .df format, which will deal with all the hard parts for you (and PyGlossary can now output/input .df files).



Yes, PyGlossary now supports Kobo dictionaries based on dictutil. It's still not completely finished yet, and there are still a few bugs left in it. But, in general, it works well now, and it can also output .df files for dictutil to use.

Interesting, thanks. I'm never going to create my own dictionaries, but if one day the Indic dictionaries I'd like are created by someone, it's good to know there's an easier way to add them. As for Webster's 1913, my main experience of it was when it was the primary source used for Google Translate Hindi: On several occasions after entering a Hindi word, I had the surreal experience of having to look up the ENGLISH word offered, because it was so antiquated I literally hadn't heard of it. That taught me all I needed to know about its relevance and usefulness to me.

Websters 1913 offers nothing to me I can't get from the vastly superior OED online, which has all the obsolete and moribund words of the Webster's, while also being useful for 21st-century English. Of course, I'm delighted that the new Kobo dictionary will mean fewer reasons to put down my Libra, pick up my phone and open the OED.

[rcentros]

Without the 1913 Webster's Dictionary I would have never learned the proper terms for golf clubs.

If anyone is looking for one of these, I don't think you're going to find one in much nicer shape than this one. (See pictures below or at the link — I have no association with the seller.)

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Websters-Ne...8AAOSwrjtfQmnP

Archive.org has a PDF version of the Websters New International Dictionary (with illustrations) available for download in two volumes at...

https://archive.org/search.php?query...s%20dictionary

They sandwich the 7th Edition Webster's Collegiate Dictionary that was required when I went to college.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by rcentros

Without the 1913 Webster's Dictionary I would have never learned the proper terms for golf clubs.

Oh, I learned those as a teen, from Plum.

[twowheels]

Loving the new dictionaries, and the new Spanish and Spanish-English dictionaries are great too. Now we just need integration w/ a translation service and there will be nothing that the Kindle beats Kobo at anymore (for me, at least)!

[anacreon]

Originally Posted by anacreon

I have a typographical problem in -it, -it-en, -de-en (not -de), -es, -es-en, -en-fr, -fr-en (but not -fr), -en: the first one and a half bold characters are missing, both in the short and the full page definition. It could be the "increase available text area" patch since nobody mentioned it, but why not -de or -fr?

I undid the "shorten dictionary entry not found message" patch, and the problem subsist (and I have the long-winded message), so it is not due that patch. I still wonder why I seem the only one to have it, and why it is not systematic.

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

I'm currently reading The Big Book of Female Detectives and came across a word that stumped the new dictionary, "muscipular". I was even more surprised to discover that even the REAL Oxford, the OED online, has no entry for the word either!
" Crawling along like a cat about to commit an act of feline ferocity upon some muscipular abortion"

From context, I guess it means 'mouse-like' (Mus musculus) or 'fly-like' (Musca domestica). Probably the former. But you're right, even the OED itself has no entry for it; I double-checked with my OED.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by mbovenka

From context, I guess it means 'mouse-like' (Mus musculus) or 'fly-like' (Musca domestica). Probably the former. But you're right, even the OED itself has no entry for it; I double-checked with my OED.

The "r" is an adjectival ending, it seems. Someone pointed out above that "muscipula" means "mouse trap"

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by anacreon

So I quickly went through all the new dictionaries.

I have a typographical problem in -it, -it-en, -de-en (not -de), -es, -es-en, -en-fr, -fr-en (but not -fr), -en: the first one and a half bold characters are missing, both in the short and the full page definition. It could be the "increase available text area" patch since nobody mentioned it, but why not -de or -fr?

Originally Posted by anacreon

I undid the "shorten dictionary entry not found message" patch, and the problem subsist (and I have the long-winded message), so it is not due that patch. I still wonder why I seem the only one to have it, and why it is not systematic.

I have had a look at a few words in those dictionaries. I don't see any problems. It could be particular words are formatted incorrectly. But, which words are problem? The headwords, or some other part of the text? Can you take screenshot to show it?

[Calenorn]

I rally like the new dictionaries. I wanted to thank the people at Kobo, but I could not find a simple 'contact us' option on their web page. Does anyone have a good email address that can be used to send feedback to Kobo?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Calenorn

I rally like the new dictionaries. I wanted to thank the people at Kobo, but I could not find a simple 'contact us' option on their web page. Does anyone have a good email address that can be used to send feedback to Kobo?

The store has a "Feedback" link on the right side of every page.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by davidfor

The store has a "Feedback" link on the right side of every page.

This question comes up quite a lot so I thought I'd better mention it ...

I think it may depend which browser you're using. My standard browser is Google Chrome and I don't see the blue "Feedback" button down the right side. However if I open kobo.com in Mozilla Firefox, I do see it.

Or maybe it's something to do with settings in each browser. I'm no expert in browser-related stuff.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

The "r" is an adjectival ending, it seems. Someone pointed out above that "muscipula" means "mouse trap"

I will admit the only place I've seen muscipula used is in the name for a Venus Flytrap. I only know that due to a friend whose hobby was carnivorous plants—he cheered for Audrey Jr. when we watched the 1960 version of Little Shop of Horrors.