Using the EDICT Files
Introduction
This page provides a brief overview of how to use the EDICT project
files (EDICT, ENAMDICT, KANJIDIC, etc.) on various platforms to obtain a
dictionary service.
WWW
There are two main WWW options:
- my own
WWWJDIC
server, which has a number of mirrors in Canada, Japan, the US, etc.
- Jeffrey Friedl's
server.
There are several others, but these are the most functional for straight
dictionary lookups.
A useful site is
Rikai,
which massages WWW pages, placing popup translations from EDICT behind
the Japanese text.
Windows
While I do not
have a lot of direct experience (I don't use Windows much), the
following appear to be the options:
- use the JquickTrans program available from the
Monash ftp site.
Despite its name, it appears to be a dictionary client.
(I haven't tried it, so I cannot comment.)
- use the old WinJDic program, also available from the Monash ftp
site. It has the limitation of not being able to handle more than one
dictionary file.
-
use the JWPce freeware wordprocessor, also available from the ftp site.
It has a good built-in dictionary function. The author, Glenn Rosenthal,
has promised a stand-alone dictionary version soon. The older JWP
wordprocessor, written by Stephen Chung, is also popular.
- another WP which uses the EDICT file is NJSTAR. NJSTAR comes with an
early copy of EDICT (from the days before I banned commercial use). If
you want to use a more recent copy, you'll need to create special index
files. I think the utilities for this are in the DOS archive of NJSTAR,
but I cannot confirm this.
- the Roboword program from
Technocraft.
- use the DOS JDIC mentioned below.
All of the above work with just "English" versions of Windows.
Unix (X-Windows)
- My own xjdic (V2.3) is available from the
Monash ftp site.
It needs to run in a kterm window, and has been used successfully on
virtually every type of Unix & Linux system.
- the
Gjiten
package, which is very nice, and has its own flexible GUI.
- for Emacs/XEmacs users there is
edict.el.
I don't know much about it, but I think it is included in the XEmacs
rpm.
Try a Google search to find out more about it.
Macintosh
Mac users have two options if they have Japanese support with their OS:
- the old MacJDic V1.3.4, available from the
Monash ftp site.
It is freeware, but can only handle one dictionary file.
- the commercial UniDict package. (I don't know how you obtain it; try
a WWW search.)
The Japanese WordMage package, which does not need Japanese OS support,
seems to provide access to the files, but I cannot confirm this.
DOS
The very original JDIC program was the first to use these files. It can
also be obtained from the Monash ftp site.
Others
There are also programs for Amiga, BeoS, Palm Pilots, etc. Most can be
obtained from the Monash ftp site.
I hope this helps.
Jim Breen
September 2000