Random House Cd-Rom Dictionary & Xywrit

[Robert Holmgren]

I've been enjoying the Random House Unabridged Dictionary Second Edition (RHUD)
on CD-ROM for the last eight months or so.  It comes as a bonus to the 10-inch
thick weighs-a-ton hard copy, and it contains complete+identical text; book and
CD-ROM together retail for about $70 (you can't purchase them separately, but I
got my disk by giving $20 to a woman at Barnes & Noble who wanted only the
book).  It's a pretty decent one-volume dictionary by any standard, and on
CD-ROM as good as anything short of the OED (which costs an extortionate $900).
Not that I've seen other CD-ROM dictionaries except with M$Bookshelf, which is
more concise (a Webster?).  DOS and Windows search engines are included.  But
RHUD gobbles too much memory as a TSR; and I can't get the Windows engine
(which has a handsome display) to pop up over XyWin (under Win-OS/2).  However,
standalone in XyDOS, RHUD works like a charm.  Best, the word under the XyWrite
cursor is passed to RHUD for lookup (if, and only if, you use all the switches
-- dos/nv/x/z -- and you make sure the cursor is in text rather than on the
CMline).  Here's an interface (D: is the assumed CD-ROM drive):

 In KBD:
 -- ---
 nn=NOJM,(,2,.,r,h,u,d,)

 In U2:
 -- --
{{5,rhud}} Poll "Random House Unabridged Dictionary" CD-ROM [Ascii-2]BX (es 1)
«SX01,"BX ("+«VA$DV»+":)GT "» BX (exist d:\uedtcd1.exe)«IF«ER»»«LBA»«PV01» 
«PRRandom House Unabridged Dictionary not found on CD-ROM»«EX»«EI» BX (wait)BX (D:
)«IF«ER»»«GLA»«EI»BX (wait)BX (chdir \) «IF«ER»»«GLA»«EI»BX (wait)
GT BX dos/nv/x/z /c uedtcd1.exeQ2 «IF«ER»»«GLA»«EI»BX (wait)«PV01»[Ascii-2]