Subject: dictd: Forwarding requests for unknown words to other dict servers.
Date: Sat, 09 Feb 2002 13:33:37 -0800
Package: dictd
Version: 1.5.5-4
Severity: wishlist
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It would be useful for dictd to be able to forward lookups (DEFINE and MATCH
protocol requests) for unknown words to other dict servers (eg, the server at
dict.org).
For users with fast connections (and equally fast remote dict servers), perhaps
this feature could be set to forward always, so that the user is always presented
with material from upstream dict servers if said material is different from what
dictd has. There should be a way for clients to disable this behavior on a per-
request basis, though.
- -- System Information
Debian Release: 3.0
Architecture: i386
Kernel: Linux cornerstone 2.4.17 #2 Wed Dec 26 02:15:03 PST 2001 i686
Locale: LANG=en_US, LC_CTYPE=en_US
Versions of packages dictd depends on:
ii libc6 2.2.4-7 GNU C Library: Shared libraries an
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Subject: Re: Bug#133141: dictd: Forwarding requests for unknown words to other dict servers.
Date: 13 Feb 2002 17:31:32 -0500
Alexander Hvostov <[email protected]> writes:
>
> Package: dictd
> Version: 1.5.5-4
> Severity: wishlist
>
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
> It would be useful for dictd to be able to forward lookups (DEFINE
> and MATCH protocol requests) for unknown words to other dict servers
> (eg, the server at dict.org).
> For users with fast connections (and equally fast remote dict
> servers), perhaps this feature could be set to forward always, so
> that the user is always presented with material from upstream dict
> servers if said material is different from what dictd has. There
> should be a way for clients to disable this behavior on a per-
> request basis, though.
If this were implemented, I believe it would have be done by
the client, dict, not by the server. However, I don't think this would
be very useful. I think one might want a second lookup because the
desired sense of a word wasn't returned at least as often as, perhaps
more often than, because the word was unknown. Of course, there is no
way one could make a program know when the desired sense wasn't
returned.
The same result could be obtained with ``dict -h dict.org
<word>'', but, assuming the user has installed all of the dictionaries
packaged for Debian, the results would be less useful than a simple
dict query because dict.org has been very slow to update the
dictionaries on line, although I have forwarded updated databases
regularly.
On my machine:
bob:vc-/2:bob>dict -D
Databases available:
gcide The Collaborative International Dictionary of English
wn WordNet (r) 1.7
foldoc The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (09 FEB 02)
jargon Jargon File (4.3.0, 30 APR 2001)
vera V.E.R.A. -- Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms December 2001
devil The Devil's Dictionary (1881-1906)
elements The Elements (07Nov00)
easton Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
hitchcock Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary (late 1800's)
gazetteer U.S. Gazetteer (1990)
world95 The CIA World Factbook (1995)
On dict.org:
bob:vc-/2:bob>dict -h dict.org -D
Databases available:
elements Elements database 20001107
web1913 Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
wn WordNet (r) 1.6
gazetteer U.S. Gazetteer (1990)
jargon Jargon File (4.2.3, 23 NOV 2000)
foldoc The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (13 Mar 01)
easton Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
hitchcock Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary (late 1800's)
devils THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993)
world95 The CIA World Factbook (1995)
vera V.E.R.A. -- Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms 13 March 2001
The above comparison is dishonest in one respect - I have not
uploaded dict-world95 to Debian. I held off on this, waiting for the
2001 edition, and, since it became available, I have procrastinated
packaging it.
Bob
--
_
|_) _ |_ Robert D. Hilliard <[email protected]>
|_) (_) |_) 1294 S.W. Seagull Way <[email protected]>
Palm City, FL USA GPG Key ID: 390D6559
PGP Key ID: A8E40EB9
Subject: Re: Bug#133141: dictd: Forwarding requests for unknown words to
other dict servers.
Date: 14 Feb 2002 02:09:21 -0800
On Wed, 2002-02-13 at 14:31, Bob Hilliard wrote:
> Alexander Hvostov <[email protected]> writes:
>
> >
> > Package: dictd
> > Version: 1.5.5-4
> > Severity: wishlist
> >
> > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> > Hash: SHA1
>
> > It would be useful for dictd to be able to forward lookups (DEFINE
> > and MATCH protocol requests) for unknown words to other dict servers
> > (eg, the server at dict.org).
>
> > For users with fast connections (and equally fast remote dict
> > servers), perhaps this feature could be set to forward always, so
> > that the user is always presented with material from upstream dict
> > servers if said material is different from what dictd has. There
> > should be a way for clients to disable this behavior on a per-
> > request basis, though.
>
> If this were implemented, I believe it would have be done by
> the client, dict, not by the server. However, I don't think this would
> be very useful. I think one might want a second lookup because the
> desired sense of a word wasn't returned at least as often as, perhaps
> more often than, because the word was unknown. Of course, there is no
> way one could make a program know when the desired sense wasn't
> returned.
Sure there is. Look it up again with a command-line option.
If this is implemented in the client, then the server cannot cache the
replies.
Regards,
Alex.
--
PGP Public Key: http://aoi.dyndns.org/~alex/pgp-public-key
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