I'm working on KSlovar. It's goal is to be multilingual, multitype (for now it has 2 types, in the future I could add the third type). For data format it uses SQLite library (faster search). I'll add an XDXF exporter/importer over time.

http://www.kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=33198
http://developer.berlios.de/projects/kslovar

Yes, I've seen this and I've already installed it. KSlovar really is a very good option, but lately I've been to busy to think about it.

I really might do it with KSlovar at some point.

p.s. sorry for the ultra-late reply.

Wiktionary is a editable, multi-language dictionary. Do you think there could be any kind of cooperation with them?

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Main_Page

Yea, I know about Wiktionary, but it's not suited for my use - I'm thinking of displaying several languages at the same time - it's a bit more complex then Wikitionary ...thanks for reminding me about it, though. ^-^

I am working on a "truly linguistic" project (PhD) of Multilingual lexical database. However, I am still at the beginning and the design will be really very complex, even for usual linguists or lexikographers. And I'm not a coder either. But I would need one myself ;-)... There is an interesting project of DEB (Dictionary Browser and Editor) at the Masaryk University in Brno, which can be used as back-end for very complex structured dictionaries, but I still do not have an answer from them, if I could use it personally, and I really wonder if it could be made public available just to anybody (like GPL). It is written in Ruby and works as an XML database with a complex query language, and it can be extended by plugins as well. However, it is not possible to write a universal editor for such a database, because such a thing depends on the particular design of the ONE concrete type (structure) of dictionary.

If someone would be interested in work on some kind of more complex and more linguistic-oriented lexical database or an editor or sth., just let me know!

I, too, am working on a dictionary maker program. I started Pydima (PYthon DIctionary MAker) two years ago, but abandonned it last year since I was basically re-inventing XML for the data storage format. About a week ago, I started toying with the idea of resurrecting it, in a new and improved form. Right now, I'm working on the documentation/tutorial, so that I have a clear idea of what to program (and since I hate it when other programs don't have sufficient documentation), so there's no code, but in principle, it shouldn't be terribly difficult.

The basic idea is this: Pydima runs as a server, so that anyone with a browser can access it (and anyone with a password can edit it; naturally, it should be possible to make the program accept connections only from localhost if one doesn't want to be so open during the editorial process.) The advantage is two-fold: one, it solves the nasty problem of how to make it cross-platform, since it will run on anything that runs Python, and will display on any system with a web browser. I've been looking at several web application frameworks, but they all seem too heavy for what I have in mind. However, thanks to Python's standard library, creating the server portion is easy; I whipped up a test server in just a handful of lines. I love Python!

The second "big idea" for Pydima is that it uses XML for the data format. However, there it won't use a defined DTD, and in fact, every dictionary could use completely different markup (created by the user with a built-in editor), because the fact of the matter is that every dictionary beyond entry:translation is different, and attempts to provide for a general dictionary markup (See TEI's --Text Encoding Initiative--attempt, which is too general and impractical for use beyond dictionaries for Indo-European languages.) The idea is that the markup scheme would be included within the dictionary, so that Pydima can read it and immediately know what to do with it. At this point, I'm against using some sort of database backend, despite the fact that Python makes interacting with a database rediculously easy, mostly because the people who have expressed interest in a program like this don't want the added hassle of setting up something like MySQL. Pydima's goal is to be as powerful as possible without adding complexity for the user, either in installation or in usage.

The end goal of Pydima is that it should be able to create large, complex dictionaries (if your university library has a copy of the Hopi dictionary, take a look at that, since at least one linguist has told me that if he could create a dictionary half as beautiful as that, he would be happy) that works for multiple languages, in multiple fields of study, and that has a wide range of outputs, including LaTeX, HTML, and DICT. And it would be licensed under the GPL. Naturally. Like you need to ask. :)

I'm going on vacation this week, but I hope to have the documentation finished at the end of May. If anyone is interested in helping out, contact me at: theclarks (at) mail (dot) ru.

That's nice, could you give me a hint as well, please, if you get something to present? I'd be very interested.

The problem of all current systems (incl. TEI and ISO norms) is that they are all "printed-dictionary-oriented", if you understand what I mean. I would like to go beyond the limitations of printed dictionaries and use the possibilities of electronic media to make more detailed and exact descriptions. I believe, it could be more interesting both for NLP as well as usual human users (I don't know how about you but I still miss lot of information in current dictionaries).

The system I have mentioned is not just a XML database backed - actually, it is a server, which is accessible currently by HTTP or XML-RPC. There are a few frontends (browsers) for the server as well. You can have a look at http://nlp.fi.muni.cz/projekty/deb/

Looks also interesting - but in any case this project of mine is still a loooong time away from start - I don't have time at all to make a multilingual law dictionary at the moment.

But maybe, I'll find time someday to get together a simple test entry.

Why don't you guys mail me someday, so we can discuss it more thouroughly?

matija.suklje [at] rutka.net

Sounds awesome :D

I'd love to see a link (couldn't google anything sensible).

I was thinking on how to make it cross-platform too, but the web-based idea is great :D ...this way maybe even Kdict can (in a future version) search in Pydima dictionaries because of the DICT support :]

When Pydima works, all we'd need is a nice (and simple) editor (apart from the web-based one i'd love to see a cute qt/kde app) ...but that's probably already another project.

Great! ...didn't anticipate such a good news so soon :D