IBM dictionaries

["Adriano Ortile" md4929@xxxxxxxx]

Robert,
really, as you know, I hardly use dictionaries, for the reasons I earlier
explained.

> Another strategy -- the one I use -- is to set a "big" DICtionary as
> my opening UD in SETTINGS.DFL, but not to set VAriable OM at all, so that
> it defaults to 31 (Microlytics). I then toggle to OM=0 (PCLEX), and
> everything is well -- for that _one_ DICtionary. But, as you say,
> auto-check crashes the session every time.
>
In searching for the best strategy, I tried several ways to have
dictionaries and autocheck available at the best. The biggest problem of
Microlitics is that it does not permit the change of the language. The
dictionary name is DICT.SPL, no matter which the dictionary is. American
and English people do not generally need to change dictionary, so they
cannot feel this necessity. But I think it's a very big limitation,
especially considering that to change the language you have not only to
"rename" the dictionary but also to restart the program (in Xy3 you could
"unload" the dictionary and reload a new renamed one).
Another big limitation is the hyphenation (my version of Xy3 can hyphenate
following Italian rules -HY4 and HY5 commands. Note: Xy4 crashes if you do
these commands-). To hyphenate in foreign languages, a big xxx.hyp personal
dictionary is needed. And it cannot satisfy everything, due to two big bugs
in the program. So, for me, the DIC dictionaries are welcome: you can swap
between them on the same work, and they perform also the appropriate
hyphenation. But nothing is perfect, so...
Xy4 Win seems not to work well with DICs. May be this is beacause of my
version of PCLEXAM.DLL. For this reason I decided to use Xy4 Win mainly
with Italian DICT.SPL (and a big, continuously increasing and not
satisfactory personal HYP and SPL) and Xy4 Dos with DICs (foreign and
Italian).

> I'm intrigued that you use the Italian DICT.SPL. Do you use the little
> XyWrite version (198K) or the big NotaBene one (393K)? The XyWrite one
> seemed to be very poor and "thin"... What's your opinion (as to quality)
> of the big new Italian DIC with thesaurus?

I'm using the small version. The bigger version causes frequent crashes. My
intention is not to abandon experiments, but at the moment I use the small
version. It is not "complete", but it's better than the Microlitics
version: at least, it permits me to write words linked with apostrophe
without beeps for warning. It has not thesaurus, but I don't need it for
Italian. Fortunately, both small French and US DICs have thesaurus. Good
for me.

> One part of your message is
> not clear to me: does Auto-Check work for you only with the old small
> DICs, or also with the big new ones?
>
For the time it works without crash, yes, it works also with the new big
ones. But something is curious. I try to explain relying in my memory, as I
lost the notes I written about this point.
I thought to have found the best solution doing a manual default settings
before to use the needed type of dictionary (DIC or SPL). But it was only a
dream. In fact, if you set UD, OM and LX "manually" (i.e. outside
SETTINGS.DFL), autocheck does not work at all! And other things happen: if
you check for an error or for an alternate word, you often get no answer or
no alternate. As stated before, I lost the long paper I wrote to accurately
describe the situation. Sorry.

> I must add, that you write long, articulate messages in a foreign
> language with zero errors. Is that proof that spell checkers really
> do work, or are you just gifted?
>
Thanks for your estimation. It's sure that autocheck and thesaurus help me
a lot. And believe me: write in a foreign language is for me e strong
effort.

Thanks for your help, suggestions, and working.
Bye

Adriano Ortile
ortile@xxxxxxxx