[Lexicog] dictionary software

[Kenneth C. Hill]

The Hopi Dictionary Project used (and I continue to use) a DOS program
called Notebook II, by a now-defunct company called Pro/Tem Software.
Notebook II is the best software I have yet discovered for dictionary
making, but it works only in a DOS window and uses only ASCII characters.
It might work on a Mac if one has Soft-PC.

Notebook has open fields, i.e., one can type in just about as much as one
wants in a field. Our field for example sentences is sometimes quite
large.

One can search for any string in any field, or for that matter, any string
in a whole record, and one can create a "view" of all and only the records
that contain (or do not contain) a specified string or set of strings,
with full Boolean possibilities, including contains, does not contain,
greater than, less than, etc.

To print, one needs to define a report format and then process the report,
once "printed" to a file, in one's favorite word processor.

The only way I know of to get a copy is for me, or someone else who has a
copy, to provide it. I was told by the former head of Pro/Tem that there
was no restriction in distributing this because the interested commercial
provider no longer exists, but I was also advised to tell anyone to whom I
give a copy that there is no entity to offer support. Unfortunately my
only copy of the instruction manual was lent to a student who disn't
return it as promised and then left the country. But Notebook has very
useful help screens that in fact answer just about all the questions one
would ask of the manual.

I'll let you know more if there is any interest and/or if people have
direct questions.

--Ken Hill

--- David Frank <david_frank at sil.org> wrote:
> I am just getting started consulting with someone who has been working
> in an
> Amerindian language and would like to compile a bilingual dictionary. He
> asked about the software options he could consider. I said Shoebox has
> been
> an obvious choice for a number of years, but LinguaLinks might be
> preferable
> for someone just starting out. I have some (slight?) problems with both
> of
> these. For our dictionary of St. Lucian Creole, we used a program I
> designed
> myself, which I called my Dictionary Database Editor. (I started writing
> and
> using this program before I ever heard of Shoebox.) Both the advantage
> and
> disadvantage of my own program are that it is designed for use with one
> particular language. Both the advantage and disadvantage of Shoebox and
> LinguaLinks are that they are designed to work with any language.
>
> This consultee says he will consider both Shoebox and LinguaLinks but he
> also wants to know what else might be available. Any comments or other
> suggestions? He happened to say he thought the Hopi Dictionary was
> beautiful
> and wondered what software was used. I said I might be able to find out.
> So
> what dictionary software did you use on the Hopi Dictionary, Ken Hill? I
> imagine it might have been something designed for that particular
> project.
>
>


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