MacJDict is a dictionary lookup program for use with the 'edict' english-japanese
and 'kanjidic' kanji dictionaries maintained by Jim Breen. It allows the user to look up english or japanese words in 'edict', and to look up kanji by a variety of methods in 'kanjidic'. It works with any Macintosh with a hard drive and KanjiTalk installed. It has been tested, and works with System 7.1.
The program is free, and can be distributed as long as this file is kept with it.
INSTALLATION
This archive should contain the following files:
MacJDict 1.0
MacJDXGen 1.0
MacJDict Manual
In addition, you will need to obtain the following files:
edict
kanjidic
[edict.doc]
[kanjidic.doc]
You should be able to obtain these files wherever you got this program. The latest version are available at the ftp site monu6.cc.monash.edu.au.
where the files in []'s are optional.
Place all of the files in one directory, and run MacJDXGen. It will ask you if you want to create index files for edict and kanjidic. Each index file takes about 5-10 minutes to create, and requires about 3 megabytes of free disk space. It will create a file called 'edict.jdx', and another called 'kanjidic.jdx.' This program needs to be run again whenever a new version of one of the dictionary files is obtained.
You should now be able to use MacJDict 1.0. When first running the program, select the fonts to use for the various windows from the fonts menu. You may have to quit and rerun the program for some of the effects of the font change to take effect. The program was written to be as intuitive as possible, so you don't really have to read the rest of the manual unless you are having problems.
USING MACJDIC
The program has three modes of looking things up. English or japanese words can be looked up in the 'edict' dictionary when the J-E / E-J option is selected. When the Kanji lookup option is selected, kanji can be looked up in the 'kanjidic' dictionary. Also, by pressing the Radical List button, one can look up kanji from a graphic list of the radicals.
When the J-E / E-J option is selected, and a kanji is searched for, "Lookup all compounds" controls whether only words begining with that kanji, or all words containing the kanji. The results of the search appear in a window that can be scrolled through. Each line begins with the number of characters that matched from your search string, followed by the string in the dictionary entry it matched, followed by the entry from the edict file. Closing the window (by clicking in the close box or pressing command-w) will bring you back to the main dialog. You can also move the windows so they don't overlap and just click on another window to switch to it. The window can also be resized.
After a kanji search, you are presented with a scrolling window of all of the kanji that matched your criteria. The information on the bottom is explained in the file 'kanjidic.doc.' Clicking on one will show you information about that kanji. You can close this window just like the output window to switch back to the main command window.
When pressing the radical list button, you are presented with a dialog box full of radicals. There are two pages of them. Clicking on one of the radicals searches for all kanji with that radical.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to Jim Breen for maintaining edict and kanjidic, and for helping me to get this to work.
Thanks to Luis Poza for lots of helpful comments and for making the icons.
If you have an comments or problems, I can be reached through email at
