IBM dictionaries

["Adriano Ortile" md4929@xxxxxxxx]

Robert, thanks for your answer.

> Adriano, here's what I'm finding. These new DICtionaries are too big --
> huge! -- to swap in and out of memory. The UD embedded command usually
> just blows memory away on my machine, even with 4Mb maximum devoted to
> EMS, and even if it references the currently-loaded DICtionary! Embedded
> UDs like  are a no-no. You need to pick one DICtionary, and
> stick with it in any one session; and it needs to be loaded at the
_start_
> of the program, via SETTINGS.DFL. To change DICtionaries, you first
> change SETTINGS.DFL (the "df UD=MAGYAR" command), close XyWrite, then
> re-launch. That works fine.
>
Really, all worked nearly well until the new dictionaries arrived. Starting
with one specific default dictionary and using only that one does not fix
the problem: my Xy4 Dos crashes immediately if the settings.dfl is set to
use one of the new dictionaries; instead, it crashes "less frequently" if
settings.dfl it is set for any old dictionary and then I switch to a new
one via UD command; and it does not crashes specifically for the dictionary
if I use only the old ones, changing them as I need. These problems only
occur if I activate the autocheck feature.

> As for Auto-Check, I don't think that's designed for anything but
> Microlytics. I never use it, the beep drives me crazy, so I don't have
> any experience with it. Neither do I know whether batch spelling works
--
> frankly, I never use any of this spell check stuff, period.

It works, with some bugs. It worked also in Signature.
 >From my point of view, autocheck is one of the most powerful and nice
features of XyWrite, in pair with batch spelling. Why I love them:
- As I'm not a good typewriter, I do a lot of mistakes while typing, also
when I type in Italian, a language I know well. A signal, warning me about
my error, is welcome and, for me, time saving. Do a later spell consumes a
lot of time, and it is very very annoying, especially in long documents.
- I'm able to do errors even while typing under the surveillance of
autocheck: especially when revising the test for readability or bad (not
incorrect) words. So for ultimate check I use the batch spelling facility.
Really easy, powerful and fast. And unique, I think.

> What I need
> and use are thesauruses, and real dictionaries (mainly Random House
> Unabridged, which works fantastically well with Xy4-DOS as long as you
> have the right version, and also the O.E.D.). The best way to spell
check
> is to put your cursor on a word, and then call up a _real_ dictionary.
If
> it summons the right word, with the right definition, then you pass.

I insist: for well known languages (for me: Italian only) I don't think
that the thesauri are so important, but it's comfortable to know you have
them.
Different consideration for not well known languages (for me: English and
French, the only foreign languages I know a little and I use): in these
cases my errors are caused both by misspelling in typing (because of not
knowing how the word should be written: autocheck welcome) and by erroneous
use of the word itself (because of not knowing its meaning: thesaurus
welcome, for comparison with other better known words).
Currently, I use Xy4 Dos to write in English or French (DIC dictionaries),
although it is default set for Italian, and Xy4 Win to write in Italian
(DICT.SPL).

> Anyway, there are limitations -- of memory, in this case. Gotta live
with
> them. Bye --

Yes, probably the very big problem is the use of the memory. An ancestral
limit of how the Dos has been designed?
Ciao.

Adriano Ortile
ortile@xxxxxxxx