Noah, the ultimate dictionary project
"Let them be open, we want to be FREE."
Noah : Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. What's in a name?
Choosing names is
difficult . My first idea? eDict. Boy, was I content with
myself. Then I've read
this.
It got me thinking. Finally I've settled for
Noah .
Q2. Program fails to install.
I got two reports like this so far. It's impossible to tell what's
wrong without seeing it, but my guess is this: the database is really
big (>5MB). It's very likely that PalmPilot will refuse to sync it if
there is not enough memory. Please double-check that you have enough
free memory.
Q3. The database is too big.
It was the most frequently voiced complaint for versions 0.50 beta,
0.50 beta2 and 0.51. Luckily, this is no longer true. Starting with
version 0.60 there is a choice of four different dictionaries of
various sizes so that user can choose one that best suits his/her needs.
All four are based on WordNet 1.6 database, definitions are exactly the
same, bigger versions just have more of them. Here's a quick guide to available
dictionaries:
- mini, 13300 words, needs 1125 kB of memory, can be downloaded
here
(File Releases area, look for module wordnet_mini)
- small, 18421 words, needs 1329 kB of memory, included in standard
distribution at
PalmGear
- medium, 37625 words, needs 2022 kB of memory, can be downloaded
here
(File Releases area, look for module wordnet_medium)
- full, 122679 words, needs 5140 kB of memory, included in standard
distribution at
PalmGear
Q4. Does Noah support TGRpro's compact flash?
Noah runs on TGRpro just fine but it doesn't know how to use it's compact
flash memory.
It would be nice to have the database on flash and have the ability to
read the data directly from there without wasting memory.
I would like to have this feature. I probably won't do it. It would mean
a lot for work just to support a very small number of
users. But... source code is published, there is nothing that can stop
you from coding this for yourself.
Q5. Why is it so slow?
Indeed, sometimes it takes a while to display a definition from WordNet
database. It's just the way it's written: doing the appropriate compression
makes it so slow. So either I'm an incompetent programmer and it could be
made faster and retain high compression ratio or it's just a fact of life
that 20Mhz processors are not that fast to begin with. I like to think the
latter so this will be the official answer unless someone will prove me wrong
by rewriting the code to be blazingly fast and having even better compression.
The way I see it the appropriate question is: does it have to be faster to
be useful? The answer (for me personally) is no. It still beats any paper
dictionary.
Q6. Can I help you in coding?
Boy, I wish someone had actually asked that question. In my dreams I
picture myself answering "But, of course, the sky is the limit and the
world waits to be dominated by all-night-hackers so join me in making
the best dictionary in the Universe".
©2000 Krzysztof Kowalczyk