New kindle dictionary?

hattable · 07-14-2009, 08:35 AM

As a Chinese linguist by schooling (English speaker by birth) and an avid reader I have been _very_ interested in any ability to read Chinese characters on the kindle2. After getting that to work the next step was trying to get a dictionary(zh) with the same on-the-fly lookup ability as the native version. I worked on it for about 5 hours and now I got to a point where it is an actual dictionary file with “lookup” function enabled. Only the lookup ‘page’ (with the list of the words) must be hard-coded so the updated fonts do not display correctly. I know I can’t be the only one who is working to make this a reality; and at that I am probably the worst suited to do it with no prior java experience. SO I am wondering… has anyone been able to get supplemental dictionaries to work as expected? – and what luck (or maybe even if there is a single Chinese-specific-kindle-group) is there to be had or what other people have accomplished?
-hattable

ps: apologies if I missed any other posts about this, I searched I swear!

wallcraft · 07-14-2009, 11:29 AM

You appear to have got further than anyone else. The best single thread on the (dismal) previous progress is Can't change dictionary on K2. Note that, so far as I know, the standard DRM-free English MOBI dictionaries (see post #3) do work on the K2 (they work on my K1). However, multi-language dictionaries don't seem to work.

kevindorsey · 07-15-2009, 01:36 PM

If enough people request, someone will make this work eventually.

hattable · 07-15-2009, 03:12 PM

I'd make it work if I sort of had a direction to go in. I've been making computers do my bidding for odd tasks for a while now, but never needed to learn java. And someone (on another forum) said that would be the way to go about it. I believe he suggested decompiling and changing the underlying ware in the kindle.

And that doesn't even sound half bad. I just can't botch this one up.

susan_cassidy · 07-15-2009, 03:17 PM

If the Kindle supported the Chinese character set, then all you'd have to do is create a regular Mobipocket-formatted dictionary. I don't know if one of the character set hacks supports Chinese. If it does, a Mobipocket-format Chinese dictionary (UTF-8) should work, I would think. No Java needed.

hattable · 07-15-2009, 08:42 PM

I thought it would be that simple as well; but as it is now I have Chinese support with unicode-fonts-hack. With that in place I am able to view everything. After that I _painstakingly_ made a mobipocket dictionary file.

With the file loaded onto the kindle I am able to
Menu > Settings > Change Primary Dictionary
the only problem is that even though the "word" slot in the dictionary file is the chinese character, and the word that I 'highlight' on the kindle is the chinese character, there is some function/process that doesn't occur to use the highlighted word from the book to search the dictionary file so that it can pop up the definition on the bottom.

As soon as I get a little more understanding about how it works (since the OS for the kindle is partly OSS I'm hoping that someone somewhere has a breakdown of the functions) and if not I'm sure I can get enough information from the built-in dictionary to at least hack something together as a proof of concept before taking on the arduous task of making the whole 65,000+ word dictionary. Ha

07-14-2009, 08:35 AM	#1
hattable Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2009 Device: kindle2	New kindle dictionary? As a Chinese linguist by schooling (English speaker by birth) and an avid reader I have been _very_ interested in any ability to read Chinese characters on the kindle2. After getting that to work the next step was trying to get a dictionary(zh) with the same on-the-fly lookup ability as the native version. I worked on it for about 5 hours and now I got to a point where it is an actual dictionary file with “lookup” function enabled. Only the lookup ‘page’ (with the list of the words) must be hard-coded so the updated fonts do not display correctly. I know I can’t be the only one who is working to make this a reality; and at that I am probably the worst suited to do it with no prior java experience. SO I am wondering… has anyone been able to get supplemental dictionaries to work as expected? – and what luck (or maybe even if there is a single Chinese-specific-kindle-group) is there to be had or what other people have accomplished? -hattable ps: apologies if I missed any other posts about this, I searched I swear!

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07-14-2009, 11:29 AM	#2
wallcraft reader Posts: 6,975 Karma: 5183568 Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Mississippi, USA Device: Kindle 3, Kobo Glo HD	You appear to have got further than anyone else. The best single thread on the (dismal) previous progress is Can't change dictionary on K2. Note that, so far as I know, the standard DRM-free English MOBI dictionaries (see post #3) do work on the K2 (they work on my K1). However, multi-language dictionaries don't seem to work.

07-15-2009, 01:36 PM	#3
kevindorsey Evangelist Posts: 488 Karma: 258 Join Date: Mar 2009 Device: kindle	If enough people request, someone will make this work eventually.

07-15-2009, 03:12 PM	#4
hattable Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2009 Device: kindle2	I'd make it work if I sort of had a direction to go in. I've been making computers do my bidding for odd tasks for a while now, but never needed to learn java. And someone (on another forum) said that would be the way to go about it. I believe he suggested decompiling and changing the underlying ware in the kindle. And that doesn't even sound half bad. I just can't botch this one up.

07-15-2009, 03:17 PM	#5
susan_cassidy Wizard Posts: 2,251 Karma: 3720310 Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: USA Device: Kindle, iPad (not used much for reading)	If the Kindle supported the Chinese character set, then all you'd have to do is create a regular Mobipocket-formatted dictionary. I don't know if one of the character set hacks supports Chinese. If it does, a Mobipocket-format Chinese dictionary (UTF-8) should work, I would think. No Java needed.

07-15-2009, 08:42 PM	#6
hattable Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2009 Device: kindle2	I thought it would be that simple as well; but as it is now I have Chinese support with unicode-fonts-hack. With that in place I am able to view everything. After that I _painstakingly_ made a mobipocket dictionary file. With the file loaded onto the kindle I am able to Menu > Settings > Change Primary Dictionary the only problem is that even though the "word" slot in the dictionary file is the chinese character, and the word that I 'highlight' on the kindle is the chinese character, there is some function/process that doesn't occur to use the highlighted word from the book to search the dictionary file so that it can pop up the definition on the bottom. As soon as I get a little more understanding about how it works (since the OS for the kindle is partly OSS I'm hoping that someone somewhere has a breakdown of the functions) and if not I'm sure I can get enough information from the built-in dictionary to at least hack something together as a proof of concept before taking on the arduous task of making the whole 65,000+ word dictionary. Ha

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