Odyssey Bookeen looking for Dictionary Beta testers

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by HarryT

No, no dictionary support in ePub 3.

Thanks for the quick info. It is an unfortunate conspiracy of Amazon paying off the inventors of epub to create a big format war and thus boosting the Kindle even further. You don't need to put in a dictionary standard, look at all the time you save by not having to implement lookup if you create a reading-app. I do hope that Amazon did not actually do that.

Originally Posted by AlPe

So, right now, all you can do is either setting a different interface language for your device or keep copying/deleting the relevant dictionaries to/from your Odyssey.

I agree that automatic selection of the dictionary + possibility to manually change it would be a better option.

I did send Bookeen a request to put that manual support in - on the blog. But it is "awaiting moderation". See below.

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

Oh, if you have to check the blog

Checking the blog is unfortunately useless. It is moderated and posts won't show up unless somebody from Bookeen approves. The last comment was from me, and I did sent another one a few minutes later specifically asking how we are supposed to report our findings on the beta-test. I failed to see that they forgot to mention that. With it beeing a open beta-test the blog seams highly inapproriate, IMHO. Bookeen needs to get feedback on it. It is an easy way out to say it is a beta-test and then ignore complaints that it does not work right (but hey you did know it is only a beta-test, right?). I have never seen any beta test where the company does not appreciate feedback and even encourages it. I am sorry Bookeen, if you cannot handle thousands of people sending the same issue in multiple times, then you should not have made it a open-beta. Limit the number of beta-testers to a small number, give them access to a forum so discussions are possible, and then after the first major issues are solved, move on and increase the number of beta-testers or make it public.

I do believe that there is a high number of people interested in the beta-test that just wanted a dictionary.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by AlPe

BTW, I do not think that EPUB specs should rule the dictionary mechanism.

If the definition of a dictionary was a part of the ePub specification, you could buy dictionaries for any ePub device in an ePub bookstore, just like you can with Mobipocket dictionaries. How could that not be a good thing?

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by AlPe

False. They just have to adopt some "standardized" format, like stardict or XDXF, instead of trying to play as Apple does with its devices... the "reinventing the wheel" thing is done on purpose, in this case, I suspect.

What is the big deal with writing that into the ePub standard. As in "ePub readers must be able to support stardict". Now it is up to the manufacturer of the ePub-reading-app if they want to only support stardict. If they don't like the performance or file structure of stardict, they are free to include a tool that will generate a compiled version for the reading app. If they want to reinvent the wheel for various reasons (they cannot get a reasonable licence of a startdict dictionary e.g.) then they are free to put additional support in for a different (even propritary) format.

[vishcompany]

Originally Posted by AlPe

Actually yes, there is. I "reversed engineered" the format of Odyssey dictionaries with the help of fellows SBF-forum friends. After figuring out how it is done, I wrote my own Bash+Python scripts to convert stardict/xml dictionaries to the crazy format required by the Odyssey.

....

You might want to read the following SBF-forum thread, maybe using Google Translate, as it is in Italian:

http://forum.simplicissimus.it/booke...-come-crearli/

This is very, very interesting. Before venturing into this, let me ask a dumb question: a mobi dictionary is sort of "stardict/xml" based and could therefore be transformed into a format, that works on the Odyssey (or maybe also the T1?) ?

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by AlPe

Actually yes, there is. I "reversed engineered" the format of Odyssey dictionaries with the help of fellows SBF-forum friends. After figuring out how it is done, I wrote my own Bash+Python scripts to convert stardict/xml dictionaries to the crazy format required by the Odyssey.

You might want to read the following SBF-forum thread, maybe using Google Translate, as it is in Italian:

http://forum.simplicissimus.it/booke...-come-crearli/

Thank you. Is there any chance that you might make that independent from bash and port to Windows and Mac? It can probably stay in Python as that can be installed on win and mac.

I'll go check the SBf-forum thread out, hopefully I can make some sense of it.

[EowynCarter]

Originally Posted by AlPe

Actually yes, there is. I "reversed engineered" the format of Odyssey dictionaries with the help of fellows SBF-forum friends. After figuring out how it is done, I wrote my own Bash+Python scripts to convert stardict/xml dictionaries to the crazy format required by the Odyssey. Proof:



You might want to read the following SBF-forum thread, maybe using Google Translate, as it is in Italian:

http://forum.simplicissimus.it/booke...-come-crearli/

I had a look at the file and though it shoudn't be too hard to do that, but whoo, that was fast !

Good job !

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

I had a look at the file and though it shoudn't be too hard to do that, but whoo, that was fast !

Good job !

It was fast, yes, but not as fast as you think. The forum link posted is a interesting read, and AlPe's suggestion of Google translate works indeed very well (at least if translated into english).

AlPe, correct me if I am wrong, but the Odyssey did infact already support a Italian dictionary before they started the beta-test for multiple dictionaries?

[EowynCarter]

Looks like he used the French dictionary that was already there

That's good for those using not well know language.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

Looks like he used the French dictionary that was already there

That's good for those using not well know language.

No the french dictionary is not accessable - it is in a part of internal memory that cannot be seen (w/o root access). He used an Italian dictionary that was available before the beta-test for multiple dictionaries. I guess Italian people have enough pull to make Bookeen give them what they want.

[bob123]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

Checking the blog is unfortunately useless. It is moderated and posts won't show up unless somebody from Bookeen approves. The last comment was from me, and I did sent another one a few minutes later specifically asking how we are supposed to report our findings on the beta-test. I failed to see that they forgot to mention that. With it beeing a open beta-test the blog seams highly inapproriate,

I do believe that there is a high number of people interested in the beta-test that just wanted a dictionary.

Actually if you had read the blog you would have seen: "Please submit your comments using the contact form on our site." (with a hyper link).

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

I do believe that there is a high number of people interested in the beta-test that just wanted a dictionary.

That is probably true.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by bob123

Actually if you had read the blog you would have seen: "Please submit your comments using the contact form on our site." (with a hyper link).

Well cut of my legs and call me shorty. Blimey. Are you sure that was there yesterday? I am just asking, because I remember reading the top part. I might have simply missed it. But I see they finally woke up and posted my comment and answered it.

[AlPe]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

What is the big deal with writing that into the ePub standard. As in "ePub readers must be able to support stardict". Now it is up to the manufacturer of the ePub-reading-app if they want to only support stardict. If they don't like the performance or file structure of stardict, they are free to include a tool that will generate a compiled version for the reading app. If they want to reinvent the wheel for various reasons (they cannot get a reasonable licence of a startdict dictionary e.g.) then they are free to put additional support in for a different (even propritary) format.

Originally Posted by HarryT

If the definition of a dictionary was a part of the ePub specification, you could buy dictionaries for any ePub device in an ePub bookstore, just like you can with Mobipocket dictionaries. How could that not be a good thing?

Modularity. I'd like to keep separate the ebook spec from the dictionary spec. I agree that it is not difficult to implement both, but --- at least in my view --- they serve different purposes, hence they should live in different "specs", especially because they can be used in several context each one without the other.

[AlPe]

Originally Posted by vishcompany

This is very, very interesting. Before venturing into this, let me ask a dumb question: a mobi dictionary is sort of "stardict/xml" based and could therefore be transformed into a format, that works on the Odyssey (or maybe also the T1?) ?

Yes, already done, by first converting it into stardict and then into the Odyssey format.

EDIT: sorry, I do not own a T1, so I do not know which format it adopts and therefore I am of no help for that.

[AlPe]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

Thank you. Is there any chance that you might make that independent from bash and port to Windows and Mac? It can probably stay in Python as that can be installed on win and mac.

I am planning to release my scripts, maybe integrating the bash part into the python script***. As I am a perfectionist, I will do that after some polishing of the code. Unfortunately, I have a PhD thesis to submit next week, so do not expect me to publish anything before the following week.

BTW, as I am on the job market now, if you have a vacancy in your team and you think it is the super-coolest job on Earth, let me know

*** I mixed the stuff because I know quite well Bash/awk and relatively little of python, so I coded the FS-oriented stuff into the Bash script and the text manipulation into the python script.

[AlPe]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

He used an Italian dictionary that was available before the beta-test for multiple dictionaries.

Correct. I inspected it, realized how it works, and then played a little bit with it

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

I guess Italian people have enough pull to make Bookeen give them what they want.

We are passionate about what we care for and we love to do things well (when we do things, of course )