Wikipedia for TomeRaider updated 12/2004

[Alexander Turcic]

You can now download updated versions (December 30, 2004) of the Wikipedia encyclopedia in the TomeRaider format. Six databases for TomeRaider 2 are available for download:

- English Wikipedia (537 Mb)
- German Wikipedia (236 Mb)
- French Wikipedia (81 Mb)
- Polish Wikipedia (53 Mb)
- Dutch Wikipedia (44 Mb)
- Esperanto Wikipedia (12 Mb)

The file naming scheme is as follows: File names all start with TR2_WP for TomeRaider 2 Wikipedia, followed by (P)PC, PALM or EPOC for platform, followed by a two letter language code (EN, DE, FR, PL, NL or EO). For Palm users the English database comes in 20 parts: WP_EN_PALM_AB, etc.

A set of files for TomeRaider 3 are supposed to follow in the next few weeks.

If you are using another reader, don't give up yet. You could try downloading the current Wikipedia database file and converting it to your favorite format.

[stobs]

for the German Version:

in TR3-Format (TomeRaider3), it can be downloaded here http://www.axelschaefermdb.de/more.php?id=197_0_1_0_M
(as you can read here: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiped...tuelle_Version)

-Stobs.

[hacker]

And attached, are some examples of the FULL Wikipedia, Wiktionary, and Wikiquote in Plucker format, which does not require separate files or indices, created and converted by myself.

More on this later...

[Alexander Turcic]

Originally Posted by hacker

And attached, are some examples of the FULL Wikipedia, Wiktionary, and Wikiquote in Plucker format, which does not require separate files or indices, created and converted by myself.

More on this later...

Are you planning to release this one? The screenshots look beautiful!

[Arnaud]

does it -already- exist in iSilo format ?
does someone plan to ?

thx

[mobilepilot]

Very impressive! Great way to showcase Plucker. Hope you'll make it available soon. What is the size of the wikipedia pdb?

[gmc]

This looks great!.
If you did release it would it be readable om my pocket pc with Vade Mecum?

[Alexander Turcic]

Originally Posted by gmc

This looks great!.
If you did release it would it be readable om my pocket pc with Vade Mecum?

Yeah I think so (hacker correct me if I am wrong). So far, I was able to open and read any Plucker document just fine with Vade Mecum!

[Colin Dunstan]

Originally Posted by Arnaud

does it -already- exist in iSilo format ?
does someone plan to ?

I'd be interested in that as well.

[Alexander Turcic]

Originally Posted by stobs

for the German Version:

in TR3-Format (TomeRaider3), it can be downloaded here http://www.axelschaefermdb.de/more.php?id=197_0_1_0_M
(as you can read here: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiped...tuelle_Version)

-Stobs.

Thanks Stobs. Just downloaded it!

[Alexander Turcic]

At PDA247 I came aware today that Stéphane Magnenat offers a Perl script for download which is supposed to automatically convert the Wikipedia SQL database to Plucker files.

Google revealed more interesting links to Wikipedia conversion tools:
Wiki2static
Wiki2Zaurus - Wikipedia for the Zaurus
wikijserver
Tero-dump

With those tools, it should be easy to convert the database to any reader format that supports large files (e.g. iSilo). I'll give it a try tonight.

[Alexander Turcic]

Wiki2static.pl doesn't work for me. When I try to run it, it says "Unknown open() mode '<:bytes' at wiki2static.pl line 841.". I have Perl 5.6.1 installed.

[hacker]

Originally Posted by Alexander

At PDA247 I came aware today that Stéphane Magnenat offers a Perl script for download which is supposed to automatically convert the Wikipedia SQL database to Plucker files.

You can try it, but it won't work so well. You can't take a SQL dump and convert it to clean, usable HTML very easily. I tried this script at first (as well as about 12 other solutions, some of which you mentioned below) and decided it was best to write my own tools to handle the conversion.

With those tools, it should be easy to convert the database to any reader format that supports large files (e.g. iSilo). I'll give it a try tonight.

Tero-dump is another mess. I actually tried to work with the author to update it to work with the current Wikipedia, but alas, he wasn't interested, so I dropped that tool as well.

They might work for some though, to convert the flat information to flat information, in a hacky, mostly-broken format, but the only way to do it right, is to make the entire package functionally navigatible, which you can see from my screenshots. It looks and feels exactly like the real thing, minus the front page articles. I rolled my own front end on top, to give it a proper TOC on down.

I've mentioned this before in another post here, but you can see the project pages evolving for these three projects here:

http://code.plkr.org/dp
http://code.plkr.org/mq
http://code.plkr.org/ep

[gadgetguru]

So will the conversion tool be released when its done? Will it be shareware, commercial, or freeware? Or will the Wikipedia mobile edition be sold preconverted for Plucker or custom viewer?

[hacker]

Originally Posted by gadgetguru

So will the conversion tool be released when its done? Will it be shareware, commercial, or freeware?

None of the above. The tool will not be sold, given away, or made public in any way.

Or will the Wikipedia mobile edition be sold preconverted for Plucker or custom viewer?

Yes.