[email protected] wrote: >Hell, I've already heard from the publisher themselves that the Oxford > >English Dictionary 3rd Edition may not see print. I can't say what >digital >format they have in mind, so no guarantee it'd be non-free but we'll >have to >wait and see.
The master of the OED 2nd Ed. is marked up in an SGML derived set of tags designed by Mike Cowlishaw (inventor of REXX an IBM Fellow like Wirth et. al.) as part of an IBM sponsored project. The current CD version comes with a proprietary reader for Windows and Mac. IIRC the Mac dictionary / spellcheck app/lib uses the same format, and it isn't DRMed or anything unpleasant like that. Because I have access to the 'OED online' free with my public library card (every UK public library I've checked does the same) I have never bothered looking to see if there are any free software readers for the format. That said if there was a free software project to build a reader for the CD ROM version I would buy a copy and take part. You will note that the BBC article gives one of the problems with the e-book method as schools having to license per pupil rather than buy a copy and loan it to a different student each year. As the FSF points out DRM stuff offers a worse deal than the existing one. State schools have no incentive to take part in such things. Leny -- 'If the public understood the banking system there would be a revolution tomorrow.' - Henry Ford.
