On Tue, 2002-10-22 at 11:05, Andrew Dunbar wrote: > --- Gabriel Gerhardsson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On Tue, 2002-10-22 at 04:05, Andrew Dunbar wrote: > > > --- Gabriel Gerhardsson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > On > > > Mon, 2002-10-21 at 02:21, Andrew Dunbar wrote: > > > > > --- phearbear <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > I was just thinking about this too. Or > > > > > something like it. How about showing a > > > > > disabled/ghosted version of the icon when a > > > > > dictionary exists but is not currently > > > > > installed? > > > > > > > > Right now the list of available dictionaries is > > > > downloaded from www.abisource.com when needed, > > > > so that information isn't available to us before > > > > we do that. > > > > > > That can't be right. The information for ispell > > > used to be in ispell_checker.cpp and Dom recently > > > moved it out into a separate XML file. This is > > > all the information we need. I think it's much > > > more useful to show an icon if a dictionary > > > *exists* rather than being available on some > > > internet server. This is usually going to be the > > > same for both anyway and we then don't have to > > > make the broken assumption that everybody > > > using AbiWord has a full-time internet connection. > > > > I clearly see your point, and I thought the same way > > a while there. But what made me suggest what I did > > was this: > > The listed dictionaries in > > ispell_dictionary_list.xml does not guarantee that > > we have a dictionary-file for all those entries. > > It should. Dictionary names are arbitrary by definit- > ion with ispell. The only way we know what the file- > name is, is by finding one in the wild. We definite- > ly shouldn't be adding entries to this list when no > such files exist. If there are some there now they > should be commented out IMHO.
Ok. > > * Now and then we may add entries in advance, before > > a dictionary is made available. > > This is an edge case and we can either not add them in > advance or we can put up with them being out of synch > and put a note somewhere for users to see. > > > * Many dictionaries is only available for little- > endian. > > Really? I was working on a fix for this and had it > half done so that either endian system could load > either endian hash file. It was suggested that this > was of little use so I put it on the back burner. > Maybe I should dig it out and finish it off... > In any case we can extend the xml file to know which > dictionary exists in which endian. At compile time or > run time we decide which endian we are and show or not > show the icons with this full information. This would be very nice. > > > > When that list have been downloaded (during a > > > > dictionary download) it's cached in the abi > > > > $HOME directory, so then we're free to use it > (of > > > > course, it may not be totally accurate, not > > > > being the latest version and all). A simple > > > > workaround would be a menu-option somewhere > > > > "Download updated dictionary-list". > > > > > > I'd recommend putting the focus on "supported" > > > rather than "downloadable". Otherwise an icon > > > alone isn't enough and is completely pointless for > > > non-internet-connected AbiWord users. > > > > My thought was that the "downloadable" dictionaries > > equals the "supported". How do you define this? > > For ispell, if there is a hash file known to work with > AbiWord and which has been entered in the xml file. > We can always note that being supported doesn't always > mean downloadable. For instance Yiddish is supported > but our friend hasn't yet released the dictionary to > be usable by everybody else. True. > > I don't want to shut non-internet-users out. I was > > just thinking out loud of how we currently can get > > the list of currently available dictionaries. > > Granted, it's currently pretty much internet-only > > material. So another solution, better suited for > > non-internet-users, would be to ship the latest > > version of the abispell-list with AbiWord > > releases. > > Well as I say, the xml file Dom created should *be* > the list. > I don't have an objection to giving connected users > more accurate information. That's a good idea. But > we should start out with the information that's > available all the time online or offline and it should > have the same meaning. Yep. > > That way my solution above would work, and in case > > someone wants an updated list, he can order AbiWord > > to download it (or it may be done implicit during a > > dictionary download). > > So, my main point is that the list that we currently > > ship in ispell_dictionary_list.xml can contain more > > than the available dictionaries, > > We should fix this and make a note in the cases where > it makes sense to leave it broken such as Yiddish. > > > while abispell-list contains exactly the currently > > available dictionaries. > > Why not add an attribute to the xml file instead of > maintaining two separate files for very closely > related > things. This would make me happy :) As we're still in development this is the time to rearrange things. If we would merge these two xml-files to one, we would have all the information (that we've talked about above) needed at install. The user would also be able to update the xml-file and * Get access to new dictionaries (that wasn't in the list before, at all). * Get access to updated dictionaries (if we for example make a en-AU specific dictionary). > > That said, in this area I of course bow before your > > will whatever you decide. I'm not a linguist nor a > > HCI expert :) I just wanted you to understand my > > view. > > Hey no need to boost my ego like that (: I just feel > that AbiWord is not primarily an internet app and most > AbiWord users at least outside the USA won't have > full- > time internet connections so we should pursue a mostly > non-internet solution. Making it a bit better when we > do have internet access is a nice enhancement though. I totally agree. The hashdownloader was meant as a enhancements, a bonus for internet-connected users. It was not meant to require internet-access for AbiWord users. > Also think of cases where I use AbiWord at home and > can come here to the internet to download spelling > dictionaries when I find out via the new icon that one > exists. Or what about when AbiWord plus all the > dictionaries come on a CD but only English is > installed > by default. The user will know to find the other one > on her CD. It also makes sense for Linux distros to > have one language in the base RPM and the others > available somewhere else. True. > Also, we should support pspell builds just as well as > ispell builds if this is possible. At least try to > make the code at the highest level possible instead of > designing the whole thing around ispell. This is > probably what you've done but I haven't inspected the > code. If we're talking about the hashdownloader here, I suggested that but met resistance. So I settled with ispell support. The code is not very ispell centric tho. It has hooks in the ispell code to start a download and it uses some other things from ispell_checker.cpp, but it wouldn't be hard to make it work for pspell too. Tho I have very limited time atm, in a couple of weeks I'll probably have much more, for a few days at least. Take care /Gabriel
