I am trying to rip the info from a dictionary CD-ROM and turn it into a *.txt or *.tab file in order to be able to read it on my Palm PDA, using TomeRaider. The data on the CD is in *.dic or *.and format. How can I do this?
I found a hint on a site that sells the Palm reader software. A user described it as follows:
“i generate my own [files] by ripping them with a keyboard-macrorecorder from my favorite Pc dictionaries and encyclopedias. It’s simply impossible to buy the amount of information which i already have on my PDA anywhere at palmgear. This is of course quite time-consuming, but there is for example no german-english dictionary for engineers on the market. I have ripped one: have you ever tried to find on any dictionary for the PDA words like ‘side lobe supression’ or 'sidetone reference equivalent’or tried to translate ‘Empfangsbezugsdaempfung’ to english? I have also the complete content of MS-Lexirom on my PDA copied into one file with 146000 subjects! I have hyperlinked it with a word processor which has the ability to execute macros!”
Any idea of how to go about this.
Thanks for your input!
Myriam
Note to the MODs: I own the CD-ROMs, so putting a copy of them on my Palm PDA should be perfectly legal. If not, feel free to let me know and lock the thread.
Some simple dictonaries may have a word database that can be imported into a database program like MS Access or an ASCII text file reader (like notepad) and then cleaned up and saved as a text file for the memopad or a more powerful Palm text reader, but I really don’t see how "ripping them with a keyboard-macrorecorder " works unless he is programming the keyboard macro to read out the contents of the CD one word at a time (by running the program) and then save the screen contents (as ASCII) to a file of some kind.
Thanks astro. I already tried to import into wordpad, but there were only weird ASCII signs, so I imagine the database is not that simple. I guess I should just check back if the guy left an email adress and try and contact him to ask how he does it.
It may not be a violation of legal copyright, but it will amost certainly be a violation of the EULA (sorry) - if they have taken steps to encypt the dictionary database, there will very likely be some little clause in the license agreement prohibiting bulk extraction of the words…
I don’t see a copyright problem here, but Mangetout is probably right about the license agreement. My CD-Rom dictionary’s license agreement has such a clause (and another that prohibits using more than one copy of the software). I don’t know what your license agreement says, but I think I had better close this thread anyway. If your license agreement does not have such a clause, e-mail me and I may be amenable to reopening the thread.
There are a number of public-domain dictionaries that might work for you. A good English-language one is the 1913 Webster’s, which can be downloaded (in several parts) in .txt or .zip format here.