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

[Emery Snyder emery_snyder@xxxxxxxx]

The German dictionary might have shrunk because they reformed their
spelling last year. I'll check it and see if it's the old or new spelling.

At 02:49 AM 22.9.1999 EST, you wrote:
>
>It's true. On 20 September, in a blistering rebuke of TTG's total failure
>to support or sustain a product line that IBM largely designed and
>financed, Big Blue released as freeware a barrage of spelling
>dictionaries, twenty-seven in all, each with an extensive thesaurus, for
>XyWrite 4 and XyWrite for Windows. At one time (5+ years ago), six IBM
>dictionaries of this type were available for purchase, although two of
>those six (Italian and Spanish) did not possess a thesaurus capability
>(compare new and old file sizes, below). The only dictionary that has
>shrunk in size compared to the earlier version is German; most of the new
>IBM dictionaries were not previously available. The direct download URL
>is:
>
>http://techsupport.services.ibm.com/asd-bin/doc/en_us/nsdicts/f-server.htm
>
>or trudge through the hierarchical menus (search for "IBM(R) Spellchecker
>Dictionaries") at:
>
>http://service.boulder.ibm.com/asd-bin/doc/en_us/catalog.htm
>
>Supported languages are:
>
>Language                  Size   Old Size
>-------------------------------------    ------  --------
>Catalan                   0.8 MB
>Czech                    1.5 MB
>Danish                   1.3 MB
>Dutch (Permissive spelling version)     2.8 MB
>Dutch (Restrictive spelling version)    2.8 MB
>Dutch (South Africa Afrikaans version)   1.3 MB
>English (Australian)            0.7 MB
>English (United Kingdom)          0.7 MB   0.7 MB
>English (United States)           0.7 MB   0.7 MB
>Finnish                   0.4 MB
>French (Canadian)              1.1 MB
>French (National)              1.2 MB   1.2 MB
>German (National reform)          1.7 MB   2.5 MB
>German (Swiss)               1.9 MB
>Greek                    2.5 MB
>Hungarian                  2.8 MB
>Icelandic                  0.6 MB
>Italian                   1.3 MB   0.3 MB
>Norwegian (Bokmal)             1.6 MB
>Norwegian (Nynorsk)             1.1 MB
>Polish                   1.6 MB
>Portuguese (Brazilian)           1.5 MB
>Portuguese (National)            1.4 MB
>Russian                   3.4 MB
>Spanish                   1.0 MB   0.3 MB
>Swedish                   1.3 MB
>Turkish                   0.6 MB
>
>I have DLed many of these dictionaries and tested them with XyWrite 4; all
>but one work perfectly (spelling and thesaurus; Russian, probably coded for a
>double-byte Unifont, fails). Except for (arguably) English, the IBM
>dictionaries are superior to the six Microlytics dictionaries that
>correspond. Moreover, the only Microlytics thesaurus is U.S. English.
>
>Setup for these IBM dictionaries involves a number of one-time steps. For
>simplified directions, as well as revised versions of my spelling and
>thesaurus frames (recommended), see file SPELLERS.DOC in:
>
>http://idt.net/~holmgren/SIG_THES.ZIP
>
>DL a fresh copy of SIG_THES.ZIP even if you already have one; it is changed.
>
>Feedback and comments requested. Have fun!
>
>
>-----------
>Robert Holmgren
>holmgren@xxxxxxxx
>-----------
>
>