S60Dict is an offline dictionary engine for DICT databases. DICT stands for 'Dictionary Server Protocol' and is a TCP transaction based query/response protocol that allows a client to access dictionary definitions from a set of natural language dictionary databases. Although it is designed for network usage, the dictionary databases are also available under the GPL license. Both bilingual (available from freedict.org) and English dictionaries can be downloaded. Among others, Wordnet is an extensive and recently updated English dictionary. Another database of interest is jargon, which presents a hackers terminology. With S60Dict you can download these dictionaries, transfer them to your phone and be able to consult them offline, without the need of an Internet connection.

Installing dictionaries

A DICT database consists of a compressed file (.dz), containing the word definitions and an index file (.index), used to expedite word searching. The .dz format is actually a modified .gz file. It is possible to extract only a portion of the data at a .dz file, while not losing much on compression ratio. The index file is a plain text file. Every line contains a single headword along with the offset and the length of the meaning in the .dz file. When you download the databases, these are usually in a tar.gz format. In order to install a dictionary in your phone you must follow these steps:

• Open the tar.gz file with the zip utility of your choice and extract the .dict.dz and .index files in a folder in your PC.
• S60Dict requires the .index file to be ASCII sorted. However the files you download are not always sorted this way. You can easily sort an .index file yourself with the 'sort_file.bat' batch file, provided in the download section. Simply run the following command in a Windows XP command prompt.

  sort_file.bat name.index

• After you have sorted the index file, transfer it along with the dict.dz file to your phone. The index and the dict.dz files must be in the same directory. You can use any directory in your phone. S60Dict allows you to define up to 4 directories, where databases will be looked up. The easiest thing to do, is to place the files in S60Dict's installation directory.

Usage of S60Dict

After you've installed one or more dictionaries, launch S60Dict. You can select a dictionary with the 'Select Dictionary' menu command. If you see no dictionaries, you may need to modify the path. You can do this with the 'Settings', 'Path' menu command. Then type the word you want to search for and press 'Search'. If there are entries in the dictionary that match your word, they will appear in a list. Otherwise a list of words adjacent to the word you've searched for will appear. In both cases you can see the meaning of a word by selecting it. Press 'Back' to return to the previous view.

Download

This article has also been published in NewLC.

S603rd Edition

S60dict has been ported to S603rd Edition by Yohanes Nugroho. You can download it from his blogspot at http://tinyhack.com/freewarelist/s603rd/2007/02/26/s60dict-for-3rd-edition/