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

[Robert Holmgren holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

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!


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Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
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