dbbolton
April 28th, 2007, 02:26 AM
sounds interesting. What kind of help do you need?
well, to be frank: a lot.
i think what demands the most help is programming the interface to work with the database- as this is something where i have virtually no experience.
one person on sourceforge has offered to help specifically interface design.
i have a pretty good idea of how to set up an xml catalogue, but i am beginning to see that this alone will not suffice. for instance, if you look at an entry in a real dictionary, the text is formatted in various ways to indicate different things, which makes entries easier to read. one (admittedly rudimentary) solution is to employ xhtml and put the entire database online, then a front-end (much like the Dictionary app that is shipped with ubuntu) could be used to access the database.
however, i would ultimately like to create an internet-independent, mobile version of dictionnaire.
here is an example of the database
<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<dictionairre>
<prod id="a">
<entry>
<word>a</word>
<phon>[ə]</phon>
<partspeech>indef art</partspeech>
<trans>un(e)</trans>
<note>After a negative verb, "de" is used as the indefinite article</note>
<ex lang="en">I have a car, but he doesn't have a car.</ex>
<ex lang="fr">J'ai une voiture, mais il n'a pas de voiture.</ex>
</entry>
<entry>
<word>abaci</word>
<phon>[ˈćbəsaɪ]</phon>
<partspeech>n</partspeech>
<def>pl. of abacus</def>
</entry>
<entry>
<word>aback</word>
<subhead>taken ~ (by)</subhead>
<phon>[ˈəbćk]</phon>
<partspeech>adv</partspeech>
<trans>déconcerté(e) (par)</trans>
</entry>
</prod>
</dictionnaire>
as you can see, it gets a bit sloppy.
so, i need brainstormers right now more than anything, really. i would also like to have native french speakers to help write usage notes in conjunction with native english speakers. another thing that is needed is sheer numbers. there's no way i will be able to type an entire dictionary alone.