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I recently began testing my own public `dictd` server. The main goal was to make the OED (the full and proper one) available outside of a university proxy. I fi

I recently began testing my own public `dictd` server. The main goal was to make the OED (the full and proper one) available outside of a university proxy. I figured I would add the Webster's 1913 one too. Unfortunately the vast majority of dictionary files are in "stardict" format and the conversion to "dict" has yielded mixed results. I was hoping to host _every_ dictionary, good and bad, but will walk that back now. A free VPS could at least run the OED.

kragen 2y ago
what's the stardict format? which edition of the oed are you hosting? i scanned the first edition decades ago but i don't think there's a reasonable plain-text version of it yet
- cormorant 2y ago
  StarDict (a program/file format) is easily googlable. A bit of a rabbit hole is that it's been chased around hosting providers because its site (used to) offer downloads of copyrighted dictionaries, including the OED 2nd edition. I don't know how these files were originally obtained or produced. See: https://web.archive.org/web/20230718140437/http://download.huzheng.org/bigdict/ https://web.archive.org/web/20230718140437/http://download.h... Edit to add: Also, "i scanned the first edition decades ago" sounds like quite a story. 13 volumes? What project were you doing?
  - kragen 2y ago
    oh, i just thought it would be good for the public-domain dictionary to be available to the public: https://www.mail-archive.com/kragen-tol@canonical.org/msg00152.html https://www.mail-archive.com/kragen-tol@canonical.org/msg001...
- zenoprax 2y ago
  It will be the 2nd edition which is freely available on the internet with all of the usual copyright concerns. And it's already in 'dict' format so I didn't need to convert.
  - cormorant 2y ago
    At least one of the illegal copies was supposedly converted using a version of "oed2dict": https://njw.name/oed2dict/ https://njw.name/oed2dict/ which creates various formats. That takes HTML files as input, and I don't know where those are found. ISOs of CD-ROM editions from 1996 and 2009 are online, but it looks like an adventure to install the software and/or extract the data. The trouble with piracy is that provenance is so shaky, with plenty of chance for bugs or alterations...
tomsmeding 2y ago
> to make the OED (the full and proper one) available outside of a university proxy. Was the plan to do this in a legal fashion? If so, how?
- zenoprax 2y ago
  No, it's not possible to do in a legal fashion I don't think. The existing methods require a browser-based portal that requires you to be logged in with your university proxy. As an alumnus I could do this by showing up in person to my university and accessing that way. But I'm not going to.

kragen 2y ago

what's the stardict format? which edition of the oed are you hosting? i scanned the first edition decades ago but i don't think there's a reasonable plain-text version of it yet

cormorant 2y ago
StarDict (a program/file format) is easily googlable. A bit of a rabbit hole is that it's been chased around hosting providers because its site (used to) offer downloads of copyrighted dictionaries, including the OED 2nd edition. I don't know how these files were originally obtained or produced. See: https://web.archive.org/web/20230718140437/http://download.huzheng.org/bigdict/ https://web.archive.org/web/20230718140437/http://download.h... Edit to add: Also, "i scanned the first edition decades ago" sounds like quite a story. 13 volumes? What project were you doing?
- kragen 2y ago
  oh, i just thought it would be good for the public-domain dictionary to be available to the public: https://www.mail-archive.com/kragen-tol@canonical.org/msg00152.html https://www.mail-archive.com/kragen-tol@canonical.org/msg001...
zenoprax 2y ago
It will be the 2nd edition which is freely available on the internet with all of the usual copyright concerns. And it's already in 'dict' format so I didn't need to convert.
- cormorant 2y ago
  At least one of the illegal copies was supposedly converted using a version of "oed2dict": https://njw.name/oed2dict/ https://njw.name/oed2dict/ which creates various formats. That takes HTML files as input, and I don't know where those are found. ISOs of CD-ROM editions from 1996 and 2009 are online, but it looks like an adventure to install the software and/or extract the data. The trouble with piracy is that provenance is so shaky, with plenty of chance for bugs or alterations...

tomsmeding 2y ago

> to make the OED (the full and proper one) available outside of a university proxy. Was the plan to do this in a legal fashion? If so, how?

zenoprax 2y ago
No, it's not possible to do in a legal fashion I don't think. The existing methods require a browser-based portal that requires you to be logged in with your university proxy. As an alumnus I could do this by showing up in person to my university and accessing that way. But I'm not going to.