Www Dictionary Help

Name:	Www Dictionary
Version:	1.3
Last update:	2019-08-12 17:37:44

This feature inserts a Tools ↣ Www Dictionary submenu to look up words in internet dictionaries. Several different languages are available, including the translation from one language to another. Click here to display the Features Preferences dialog and activate this package.
After this feature has been turned on, simply select the desired menu item, enter the word to be queried in the prompt dialog, and press 'OK' to open a web page displaying the word's definition. The web page will be displayed using Alpha's View Urls Using preference. This could be a web browser or Alpha itself. Click here to display the viewURL Helpers Preferences.
The url for each on-line service can be changed by selecting the menu item Tools ↣ Www Dictionary ↣ Language Settings ↣ Edit Languages, and should include everything required for the url except the word. For example, if the http://www.m-w.com/ site is used, the 'Dictionary' url setting should be

    http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?

in order to open the page http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?test.
Many of the default 'English' settings are for the on-line resources available at WordNet,, a lexical database for the English Language provided by the Cognitive Science Laboratory at Princeton University. This site maintains Antonym, Hypernym, Meronym, and Synonym databases.
You can set different 'Languages', each of which has its own urls for looking up the given word. Add additional languages with the command Language Settings ↣ New Language. All language settings can be edited, deleted, or renamed.
The Tools ↣ Www Dictionary ↣ Current Language submenu displays the default language used in all commands; selecting any item in this submenu will change the current language to that value.
As with any package that relies primarily on the correct location of remote web pages over which we have no control, the urls for any of these Languages might be (re)moved or the proper syntax for queries might change. As of this writing the package's current maintainer rarely makes use of any Language other than English, and his grasp of that is often poor, so other updates will have to come from other users.
If you have any suggestions for better settings for any of the default languages, or a new language package to contribute, please send the urls to this package's maintainer and they will be included in the next update. If you have a language site that accepts searches but are having trouble resolving the proper url setting to use, please ask on one of the mailing lists described in the Readme file.
Tip: you can also define a 'language' for any on-line database that accepts queries, such as a 'Cell And Molecular Biology' language that uses urls like http://www.mblab.gla.ac.uk/~julian/dict2.cgi?neuron.
A Contextual Menu module is also available, which will automatically send the word surrounding the Contextual Menu click point (i.e. the mouse position) to the on-line service. If the text surrounding the mouse position is ambiguous you will be prompted to clarify the query. Click here to display the Contextual Menu Preferences panel.
This Contextual Menu module is available even if this feature has not been turned on.

Known problems

Please report any problem or bug you encounter to Alpha's Bug Tracker.

License and Disclaimer

Copyright (c) 2002-2019, Craig Barton Upright.
All rights reserved.
The wwwDictionary package is free software and distributed under the terms of the new BSD license:
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
Neither the name of Craig Barton Upright nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL CRAIG BARTON UPRIGHT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.