Introduction
How to write or edit a data file
How to edit the main dictionary
How to keep the "look" uniform
How to take part in the LEXIS project
How to distribute the LEXIS program
Introduction
If you want to make your own dictionary, or expand the current one, here
are some format conventions you may want to observe. They are obviously
not compulsory, but if you have in mind an exchange of files with other
colleagues to come up with a really comprehensive dictionary, it is a good
idea to keep to a common set of format conventions.
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How to write or edit a data file
Just write the data file in .TXT format. Bear in mind that the lines
must not exceed 75 characters, as a two-character margin will be
automatically added on the left. Therefore, you should use a font like
Courier so you can easily control the length of your lines.
Alternatively, use the text editor C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\EDIT.COM
or C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\EDIT.COM which can be used as a D.O.S.
program. This will allow you to keep count of the line length quite
easily. (You can click on the above links to see where you can find it
on your computer).
If you want to highlight some special words, you can do it, but it's
entirely optional (see the introduction to this file, though).
Look below for help on how to do this.
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How to edit the main dictionary
The general philosophy is to have a useful dictionary that can be used
by Spanish ESO students at several levels: to check spelling, to find
a quick translation and to get examples of use.
Therefore, all entries should be in the form of an example sentence in
English translated into Spanish.
Students should be encouraged to copy the English examples on their
notebooks for study purposes, so the examples would be most useful
to them if they included common expressions that are not easy to translate
literally into Spanish (look up <idea> as an example of this).
Apart from that, all kinds of things can be added: definitions in
English, explanations in English or Spanish about usage, cross-references,
etc., but I think the priority is to have a reasonable amount of complete
entries, then we can think about improving the features of the dictionary.
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How to keep the «look» uniform
In order to keep the necessary uniformity should the chance arise to
put together the work of several colleagues, the following general
format conventions should be kept in mind:
1.- Any entry can have several head words, at least one in English and
one in Spanish (except words such as "idea", which have only one).
A head word can appear in different entries; all of them will be
located and shown on the screen, separated by a horizontal line.
This makes it possible for the student to look for either Spanish
or English words without having to think about it.
2.- To mark a headword a colon will be used directly in front of it,
like this:
:headword
This signals to the program where to find the examples of use,
and makes it easier for the search function of any text editor to
locate a headword.
3.- To mark the end of an entry a line with the character # is used.
This way there is no limit to the amount of space that can be used
by an entry.
4.- Everything between the headwords and the # line will be considered
part of the text that has to be shown on the screen, and copied onto
a temporal file (ENTRY.TXT) which will then be shown on the screen
complete with highlighted words.
The colours will be used to highlight precisely what word or phrase
is being exemplified, both in English and in Spanish, including those
prepositions, determiners, etc. which are different in both languages.
This way students can have a clear idea of what to pay attention to
when using that word or phrase.
5.- The English example should appear first, and the highlighted word or
phrase should appear in blue. The Spanish example should appear after
a [ = ] character, and its highlighted part should appear in red.
Any explanations on usage etc. can be highlighted in a blue background.
To highlight a word or phrase, it should be written between a special
kind of brackets, the ones to the left of the «z» key. An example with
the English word highlighted in blue and the Spanish word in red
should look like this:
This is an example of an English <word>. =
= Esto es un ejemplo de una <<palabra> inglesa.
(See SAMPLE.HTM for more realistic examples).
You can use a triple code to highlight a comment in black on a blue
background, but it should only be used with complete lines. That
looks like this:
<<<This is an example of a highlighted text taking up several lines
with explanations about meaning, use, register, differences with
Spanish, synonyms, etc.>
Another form of using colous to highlight words is with the opening
bracket immediately followed by a number from 0 to 9. Here is an
example of each colour:
<1 blue> <2 green> <3 light blue>
<4 red> <5 purple> <6 brown>
<7 white> <8 yellow> <9green on black>
<0 black on blue,> <7mixed><0 colours>
<<<black on blue, 75-character-long empty lines>
Other colour code conventions can be found at the beginning of the
LEXIS.DIC file, which you can read with the notepad.
6.- The first English headword will determine the position within
the file, in alphabetical order, of the whole entry.
This helps to decide which words should be added between the
existing ones, but it is not strictly necessary. Other possible
criteria would be by frequency of use or "level", starting the
dictionary with the easiest words and leaving the most difficult
ones to be added at the end, or using the Spanish headwords as
a guide to the alphabetical order.
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How to take part in the LEXIS project
If you think you can find the time to work seriously on a comprehensive
dictionary and want to share the workload with other colleagues, let me
know and I'll put you in touch with one another. As the project stands now,
I am open to any suggestions before a second version of the main
dictionary is released.
Also, modifications in the program itself can be considered, although I'm
no expert at programming, so don't ask me to include the use of a mouse,
complex sounds, or anything fancy like that.
The source code of the program is written in BASIC language and compiled
with QuickBasic 4.5. If you are proficient in that language and feel you
can be of some help there, let me know and I'll send you the source code file.
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How to distribute the LEXIS program
If you would like to use the program in your school with your students,
you need not ask my permission to do so. If you would also like to distribute
the program among your students, just make sure you give them a complete
version of the program files, with all the files listed in filelist.htm.
If you would like to distribute the program outside your school, you may
also do so provided you comply with the conditions of the licence. Please
read here the licence terms of the Free Software Association General
Public License under which this program can be distributed: gnu_gpl.txt.
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