Re: IBM Releases 27 Dictionaries/Thesauri for Xy4-DOS and XyWin

[Robert Holmgren holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to note from xywrite@xxxxxxxx Fri, 24 Sep 1999 20:44:32 +0900

> But why is the new [German DEUTSCH2 dictionary] so
> much smaller than the old one? Unfortunately, that seems to be
> because the thesaurus function was removed!

So it seems. Odd. The DSCHWEIZ.DIC ("Swiss German") dictionary, another component
of this IBM bonanza, has a functioning thesaurus. So does every other DICtionary
I've tried (NEDERLND, ESPANA, ITALIANO, FRANCAIS, SVENSK, PORTUGAL, US, UK). The
only one that hasn't worked out of the box is RUSSIAN (I am pretty sure this is
just a font issue requiring some study, and maybe a dose of interest -- or the
Nauseator font used for Cyrillic may be DBCS, in which case IBM did say that DBCS
spellers have no thesaurus). I have two older PCLEX German DICtionaries that both
have thesauri: the Xygnature DEUTSCH distribution and the somewhat larger
DEUTSCHE.DIC that circulated with EuroScript VII.

> And - hoping this is not too big a can of worms, what are the respective
> advantages between the Microlytics and IBM dictionaries?

The IBM dictionaries are larger. They (almost) all have a thesaurus function;
Microlytics only has a U.S. English thesaurus. Qualitatively IBM is better than
Microlytics, except (arguably) in English -- and even there, sometimes one is
better, sometimes the other (I use them both). The major drawback of the IBM
dictionaries, at least under XyWrite, is the miserable frames devised by XyQuest to
display their content; I've written replacements which are much better (IMO) --
goto:
 http://users.datarealm.com/xywwweb/#splfrms
and grab 'em.

> I'd love to be able to run the PCLEX spellers in XyWrite--much simpler--but
> I didn't hold on to any of my Sig files or to the Signature disks and
> haven't, so far, found a way to get the required DLL files. They're not on
> the XY III Plus disks.

They're not on 3+ disks because they only work with Xy4, XyWin, NB-Win, and
SmartWords. Links to the required DLLs are found somewhere near the
above-referenced spot at XyWWWeb (N.B.: there are different packages
for Xy4-DOS on the one hand, and all the GUI garbage on the other).

> I've been stewing about the lack of spell checkers now for a long time.
> Nice to have a solution. Of sorts.

"Of sorts"? Meaning? These are fine spellcheckers, and
excellent thesauri (which latter are all I ever use anyway, knowing already how to
spell, and caring not a hwit or phig if typos creep in).

> I'd wager that IBM doesn't give a fig about
> what TTG does or does not do. The dictionaries are clearly intended
> to boost the utility and standing of the Netscape + Communicator
> combo . . .

God you are sooo cynical. Next you'll be saying that there is no SmartWords
in fact. That Ken Frank made it all up! That these Y2K "patches" are mere
cosmetic tinkering, compelled by TTG's few remaining site licensees. Outrageous!




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Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
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