[Y-Indology] Monier Willians Dictinary: Copyright situation of Cologne file

[Guest guest]

Hello Claude,

 

Monday, May 5, 2003, 8:36:08 PM, you wrote:

 

 

 

CS> copy....Rather than make new contributions to the

CS> database or offer to help with entering the Petersburg

CS> text...it seems that many would invest thousands of

CS> dollars worth of time and energy to avoid making

CS> a small contribution to Thomas Malten's heroic efforts...

 

How I can bring the contribution to development of the electronic dictionary if

I have not access to the dictionary?

(I am working with sanskrit texts and I have experience in realization of

projects of the electronic publications).

Electronic dictionary with that variant as it is submitted as "free" - cannot

help in any way to the Sanskritist who,

certainly has Monier-W., St.Petersburg's dictionary, Apte and other

dictionaries. And these dictionaries cannot be replaced

in any way by the electronic dictionary.

Certainly - essense of the electronic dictionary - as in combination of

available dictionaries, (taking into account the different

principles of their organization) and, mainly, in its development, additions.

Such material, not included in dictionaries, appears,

for example, very much in my research of epigraphy. But even in Pune's

dictionary (give the god to them to issue this dictionary

in this century !), such materials are not always taken into account, and

high-grading references and, especially contexts - are not present.

 

In my opinion - there is a problem here in the organization of the work on

development of the dictionary.

 

At the same time, as I can assume, proceeding from viewing the "free" version,

in using of the dictionary there is a problem - Harvard-Kyoto encoding.

Most potential users - Sanskritists hardly will agree with additional efforts

on decoding of the dictionary. In my opinion, this encoding now is simply

an anachronism, though also habitual for the some indologists, usable only for

e-mail.

 

 

 

Best regards,

Lielukhine D.N.

Oriental Institute. Moscow,

Dep. of History. PhD,

Member Secretary of "Oriental Epigraphy"

lel

[Guest guest]

"Lielukhine D.N." <lel

CS> dollars worth of time and energy to avoid making

CS> a small contribution to Thomas Malten's heroic efforts...

 

>>>cannot help in any way to the Sanskritist who,

>>>certainly has Monier-W.

>>>And these dictionaries cannot be replaced

>>>in any way by the electronic dictionary.

 

Sorry, but that is absolutely and VERY strong

misconception...I myself and virtually everyone

I know who actively uses dictionaries finds that

the electronic version on CD-ROM is MANY

MANY times faster and more convenient than

the printed version....(AND on-line internet

versions...and various free versions...)

everything in the printed version is in CD-ROM version ...

 

plus reverse lookup is virtually impossible with

paper version and comparisons are extremely

tedious...plus dual lookup with both English

and Sanskrit are not possible in printed version...

 

pure weight and volume of MW or Petersburg

make them extremely tedious to carry, ....but

most people now have notebook computer to

carry around anyway, so one more CD is minimal extra..

 

>>>How I can bring the contribution to development

of the electronic dictionary if I have not access to the dictionary?

 

I think if you are serious about using a dictionary,

the small cost of CD-ROM is negligible and will be returned to

you in a few day or weeks of use....how to

contribute edits is another question which we

are working on...the problem is that we have to

have ONE file to modify and be able to do it

quickly...plus allow everyone to modify and

regenerate their own modification with new changes....

 

BUT if "your" contributions are to be practically

USEFUL it takes a lot of time and effort....it is

not really useful to be a casual user modifying

a document with millions of words in it...

 

sincerely,

 

Claude Setzer