[Lexicog] email to send to Lexicography list

[Ronald Moe]

Naomi Keith wrote:

"Our team has a question about MDF - is MDF being maintained or is it
basically a dead format now? Other than Toolbox, what programs can
manipulate or import MDF files?"

 

My understanding is that MDF is no longer being maintained. I know of one
person who made some changes a few years ago. The problem is that the
Consistent Changes tables that are used to prepare the database for printing
are very complicated. So trying to change one thing may require searching
lots of code for unexpected consequences.

 

Another problem with MDF is that the user is limited to the standard fields.
If you want to do anything nonstandard (for instance if your language family
has a tradition of dictionaries that is different than the MDF format), you
must "misuse" one of the standard fields or otherwise play with the standard
fields to get MDF to format your dictionary the way you want it.

 

MDF was designed to be used with the Shoebox/Toolbox program. You can import
an MDF database into Lexique Pro and FieldWorks. However I have never seen a
Shoebox or Toolbox database that was clean and consistent. In my experience
it has always required some cleanup and manipulation of the data to bring it
up to the MDF standard. If you neglect to do this, you are very likely to
get errors when trying to print with MDF or import the database into another
program. Consequently newer programs like FieldWorks and WeSay use a
standardized format to ensure that the data is consistent. In fact a number
of programmers are working on a new standard for lexical data called LIFT.
WeSay keeps its data in the LIFT format standard. FieldWorks can export and
import from the LIFT standard, and Lexique Pro can import a LIFT file.

 

Toolbox users have also developed other tools to work with MDF files. For
instance I know of one tool that helps to clean up an MDF file, but I've
never used it. There is a Toolbox users email discussion list similar to
this one. You might want to join it.

 

Having said all this, MDF is still useful and many people have successfully
used it to organize and print their dictionaries, including me. However I
have switched to FieldWorks, which I consider a vastly superior program for
handling dictionaries. I still use Toolbox for other kinds of databases, but
not for dictionaries.

 

Ron Moe

 

  _____  

From: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
[mailto:lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Naomi Keith
Sent: Thursday, October 01, 2009 8:49 AM
To: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
Cc: 'Robert Hunt'
Subject: [Lexicog] email to send to Lexicography list

 

  

Hi,

Our team has a question about MDF - is MDF being maintained or is it
basically a dead format now? Other than Toolbox, what programs can
manipulate or import MDF files?

Thanks very much,

Naomi Keith

 



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