Dictionary app for android phones

[Chandrasekharan Raman]

Hi all, 

I would like to know what is the best app in the playstore for displaying stardict dictionaries? 

The last update for the GoldenDict app (the paid version was good) in July 2020. Looks like the latest version of android does not support it. ColorDict is too slow! Ebdic used to be good, but not available in playstore anymore. Is there anything else that is available?

Also, I have not found a desktop app (for offline use of dictionaries). Of course, there are a lot of websites that host the dictionaries. 

Thanks,

Chandru

[विश्वासो वासुकिजः (Vishvas Vasuki)]

I wish we could raise funds and pay a developer to write such an open source app for us. If seriously interested please let me know - we can get an estimate.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sanskrit-programmers" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to sanskrit-program...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sanskrit-programmers/CAO1ytLxdZOKtimcNuBxK1vuaF9KL5u4vsMOG7_L8NyQXrmuFtg%40mail.gmail.com.

--

--
Vishvas /विश्वासः

[Chandrasekharan Raman]

Yes, seriously interested. Especially since the stardict-sanskrit repo is regularly updated, we need a good interface for people who are not tech savvy.

Also, we need the stardict dictionary updater tool for iphone users.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sanskrit-programmers/CAFY6qgHVZT02eJeRct%3DZt0-A1fmYpG5-GjAgyi6c5y2M8HqycA%40mail.gmail.com.

[Neeraj Gusain]

I have two sanskrit dictionary apps installed that I like very much. They are glitch free, huge database but not sure if good for dharmics to go for since the first one is from Monier Williams who is known for his biased translations of scriptures etc while the second one has an option to select for Apte if we want.

Need your opinion on this.

First one : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dbwinston.monier

Second one: 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=kovalsky.SanKoshaPro

Thanks 

Neeraj

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sanskrit-programmers/CAO1ytLwof6tC4ODuaCR-WNwDT5hzqKZmaTAzQatUfW25N4rfZw%40mail.gmail.com.

[Prasanna Venkatesh]

Inspired by the post by Dhaval sir requesting for iOS stardict app and my own need since I switched to iPhone,  I have already started working on developing the app for downloading and searching all the dictionaries in Indic dicts repo. I am developing using Flutter so that it is available across all platforms - android, iOS, windows, macOS, linux. 

Vishvas sir and others have done a wonderful job of collecting and curating so many indic dictionaries in the indic-dict repo. But it is shame it is not easily accesible to a common user (for example my colleages and students). So, I want the app to be the official face for the repo.

The main goals are of the project are:

- single app for downloading and searching dicts - instead of two - GoldenDict/ColorDict for searching & StarDict Dictionary Updater for downloading - which is very cumbersome.
- exclusively made for the indic-dicts - so that it is fully customised to the needs of the indic dicts - transliteration etc.
- cross-platform - same UI across all devices

- supporting easy upgrading of dictionaries - when new updates are available in the repo.
- very fast
- fully offline

- no ads

I am planning to release it by mid-December. To cover for the development, publishing and maintainance cost, I am thinking of pricing the app. However, if anybody is willing to fund for these costs, I can release it for free. But, as of now, I have no plans of making it open source.

Thank you.

-- Prasanna Venkatesh

Here are some screenshots of the app in development:

[विश्वासो वासुकिजः (Vishvas Vasuki)]

Very delighted to hear this, and look forward to it! 

Certain people are interested in funding these development, maintenance etc. costs . So I suggest that you calculate this cost, and conditional on it being met, make it open source. (Whether or not you make it open source, your effort is very laudable, but it will remain a private option, and even if it is the best we have for now, it'll not be "official" for the open source indic-dict community.)

Other suggestions (entirely optional, of course) :

- Make it free - better not to bother scholars with money stuff. I don't think you'll earn more than a tiny bit (though with the below, it might have broader appeal). 

- While providing special support to indic dicts projects, provide ability to download and use custom dicts. (Not a significant overhead).

- Optimize for space as well - dict files should be read directly from archive (in fact easy), and not extracted and source (which is how IIRC color dict does).

Look forward to using it!

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sanskrit-programmers/0f5c90e7-6b6e-4734-aa10-71590ad318e6n%40googlegroups.com.

[विश्वासो वासुकिजः (Vishvas Vasuki)]

Also, good to make dictionary storage location configurable, so as to let multiple apps use the same dict data.

[kenp]

Why I built a dictionary app ?
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32300466

https://www.quora.com/Which-one-is-better-when-learning-a-new-language-normal-dictionary-or-online-dictionary

[Ram Sury]

I use the Qdict app on Android to display the Indic dictionaries.

However I feel a 21st century Sanskrit dictionary must not be structured like the dictionary of any other language. One must be able to search by prakṛti or pratyaya, search avyayas, search by upasargas, search by lakāras, search the end-forms of words such as suP forms, tiṄ form, kṛt forms, taddhita forms, samāsa forms etc. One must also be able to search by combinations or permutations of the above (to the extent sensible). Ideally if it searches the prakriya to point out application of specific sutras in the construction of the word it would be great.

Regards,

Ram

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sanskrit-programmers/CAFY6qgExze5Z7s%3DTkx4dn1JGw1mJMGNZ4u2CxXu7BBDeZshpuQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Harsh Thakkar]

uttamam Prasanna,

you have mentioned - "To cover for the development, publishing and maintainance cost, I am thinking of pricing the app. However, if anybody is willing to fund for these costs, I can release it for free" .. so, can you krupayaa send details (about the calculations you have in mind) with CC to co...@samskritabharati.ca ... I can share those details with team of https://github.com/sponsors/Samskrita-Bharati

jayatu samskritam!

[Chandrasekharan Raman]

On Wed, Nov 15, 2023 at 6:07 PM Ram Sury <srk...@gmail.com> wrote:

I use the Qdict app on Android to display the Indic dictionaries.

However I feel a 21st century Sanskrit dictionary must not be structured like the dictionary of any other language. One must be able to search by prakṛti or pratyaya, search avyayas, search by upasargas, search by lakāras, search the end-forms of words such as suP forms, tiṄ form, kṛt forms, taddhita forms, samāsa forms etc.

Well, you can accomplish some of these from the existing dictionaries as well -- for example, from the advanced search facility in the IITS koeln, you can search with upasargas. For, tiṄ forms, kṛt forms you can use ashtadhyayi.com. All these cannot be accomplished by a beginner, so a good grasp of the language is needed to explore the dictionaries in depth.

 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sanskrit-programmers/CAAmPQAqATagw-wJkoL8JbaLB79BD_sQCK7_fw319D7hd%3DPEruA%40mail.gmail.com.

[Ram Sury]

Yes, we can do the basic searches (using already available prefix, infix, suffix, substring, exact... options) using existing dictionaries, but that's not the point I am trying to suggest.  I am not also talking about beginners (or people who aren't aware of how to use existing dictionaries), but about advanced students and scholars who know what they are looking for, and how to use the existing dictionaries well. I use the IITS Koeln dictionaries and ashtadhyayi.com (and several other lexical resources like DCS) extensively, and I am aware of their pluses and minuses.

It is precisely to address their minuses that I'm suggesting a different approach - by making a Sanskrit dictionary that actually respects the way Sanskrit is structured, it becomes much more useful to Sanskrit students and scholars. It is easier to have such multiple search filters and analytical capabilities in an online dictionary than in traditional dictionaries of the printed paper era.

For example no digital dictionary currently allows you to search words by upasargas - as you may be aware, in thousands of tiN and kRt words, dhatus are often preceded by multiple upasargas (which sometimes occur in the middle of the word and not always at the very beginning) - if someone wants to see which kRt words use the upasarga  'ā', they would get all the words that has 'ā' in it regardless of whether it is an upasarga or not, and whether it is a kRdanta or not. So no current digital dictionary I am aware of has a filter to search by upasargas. The ability to search by prefixes, infixes, suffixes etc do not always give you only results containing those very upasargas or pratyayas (also due to word-internal sandhi we don't get all the words that have that particular pratyaya or upasarga within the results displayed). This is just a simple example, for more complex searches, the currently available dictionaries are more severely limited.

Regards,
Ram

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sanskrit-programmers/CAO1ytLyRXzbm%2Bua_E78oQZ8TskRHE_U%3DttAMhSoc8p3Eu5ESSA%40mail.gmail.com.

[विश्वासो वासुकिजः (Vishvas Vasuki)]

On Sat, 18 Nov 2023 at 19:08, Ram Sury <srk...@gmail.com> wrote:

Yes, we can do the basic searches (using already available prefix, infix, suffix, substring, exact... options) using existing dictionaries, but that's not the point I am trying to suggest.  I am not also talking about beginners (or people who aren't aware of how to use existing dictionaries), but about advanced students and scholars who know what they are looking for, and how to use the existing dictionaries well. I use the IITS Koeln dictionaries and ashtadhyayi.com (and several other lexical resources like DCS) extensively, and I am aware of their pluses and minuses.

It is precisely to address their minuses that I'm suggesting a different approach - by making a Sanskrit dictionary that actually respects the way Sanskrit is structured, it becomes much more useful to Sanskrit students and scholars. It is easier to have such multiple search filters and analytical capabilities in an online dictionary than in traditional dictionaries of the printed paper era.

Which makes me recall aruN prasAd's vidyut prakriyA effort ( https://github.com/ambuda-org/vidyut ) - would be super if it were available offline as an app.

 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sanskrit-programmers/CAAmPQAqTy4uCwb_1bB4Xg3jCgtfJHo4q8GTHWq_w%3DtU2Q%3DFh6g%40mail.gmail.com.

[Arun]

> would be super if it were available offline as an app

Indeed. I'll send out more updates later, but here's the state of our Vidyut work:

- vidyut-prakriya implements almost 2,000 rules from the Ashtadhyayi and has very strong support for tinantas, subantas, krdantas, and taddhitantas. Given the user's input conditions (purusha, lakara, etc.), vidyut-prakriya produces a prakriya for each possible output. We're about two weeks away from a major release here.

- vidyut-kosha is a complement to vidyut-prakriya. Where vidyut-prakriya calculates the forward mapping (inputs --> outputs), vidyut-kosha efficiently stores the reverse mapping (outputs --> inputs), which means any Sanskrit program can have access to an enormous and memory-efficient word store. vidyut-kosha is mostly ready but needs to be upgraded given improvements in vidyut-prakriya.

- vidyut-cheda combines these two to add support for samasas and sentences. That is, given an expression, we return the individual padas that create that expression, and we can further analyze those padas into their Paninian inputs. vidyut-cheda is mostly ready but needs to be upgrade to use the latest version of vidyut-kosha.

My stretch goal for the end of the year is to fold all of the above into Ambuda's online dictionary.

All of this code is implemented in Rust, so if we create Flutter bindings on top (e.g. through flutter_rust_bridge), then any app developer should have access to it. I have created Python bindings for use with the Ambuda project, but I don't have the time to create bindings for other languages. That said, I'm happy to work with and support anyone who wants bindings to their language of choice.

Arun

[Chandrasekharan Raman]

Since the topic of upasarga came up, any plans for bringing this into the dictionary framework? https://github.com/vishvAsa/sanskrit/tree/content/koshaH/upasargArtha-chandrikA

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sanskrit-programmers/0e1754c4-fd07-4640-b403-1b9d2bc5cca9n%40googlegroups.com.

[Prasanna Venkatesh]

Namaste all,

Happy to know many of you are interested in my project.

Thank you Vishas sir and Hari sir for your words of appreciatiion.

> Certain people are interested in funding these development, maintenance etc. costs . So I suggest that you calculate this cost, and conditional on it being met, make it open source.

> so, can you krupayaa send details (about the calculations you have in mind)

Glad to know some of you are willing to fund the project.

Since the app would be useful for many kinds of people - students, scholars, teachers, sanskrit enthusiasts, I am planning to work on it stably for a couple of years. I don't want to abandon it when I become interested in other projects.

It is also going to be developed simultaneously for all the different major platforms - Android, iOS, macOS, Windows, Linux. The app has to handle the quirks of these platforms and needs to be updated to keep up with the changes in these platforms. 

Also, I want to avoid developing the app for a few months and then leaving it for the community to handle problems. This is exactly why I started this project in the first place — developers of the some of the other dict apps have abandoned their work due to lack of time, financial benefits, interest, etc, leaving their apps outdated and buggy.

As Ram sir said, we need a 21st century dictionary app, that caters the needs of the current and future students and scholars by making use of the latest and greatest features that technology provides us.

There are many such features I have planned for the app. Most of these will be implemented in first phase (i.e. development phase) which will be for 1 year. It may also include new features suggested by the community.  For the next two years, it will be maintance phase -- updates, bug fixes, other new minor features. I intend to dedicate approximately 20 hrs/month to this project during the entire period.

Keeping these things in mind, I would need $200/month to help me sustainably contribute to the project for the next three years. It would include costs of maintenance and app store publication as well.

Whoever is willing to fund the amount, please let me know, I will setup the GitHub sponsors page and share it.

---

> (Whether or not you make it open source, your effort is very laudable, but it will remain a private option, and even if it is the best we have for now, it'll not be "official" for the open source indic-dict community.)

I meant "official" in the sense -- whatever features the indic-dicts community needs in the app can be discussed and implemented.

---

Thank you for the suggestions, Vishas sir.

> While providing special support to indic dicts projects, provide ability to download and use custom dicts. (Not a significant overhead).

I want the app to be as easy to use as possible -- following the "ready-to-use" approach -- so that the users are not much bothered with setting up dictionaries, etc. So, it will leave little room for customisation. 

However, I understand the need for this and I will try to include an "Advanced" mode in later releases.

> Optimize for space as well - dict files should be read directly from archive (in fact easy), and not extracted and source (which is how IIRC color dict does).

I have written a Dart library for reading both from dict archive file (dict.dz) and as well as just the dict file, whichever is available, following the StarDict documentation. 

> Make it free - better not to bother scholars with money stuff. I don't think you'll earn more than a tiny bit (though with the below, it might have broader appeal). 

If I can receive enough funding, I will certainly release it for free. As you might already know, there is at the least the cost of publishing (Apple Developer Program - $99/year and Andoird Play Store Developer account - $25). And I have no plans of cluttering the app with ads.

---

Thank you all.

-- Prasanna Venkatesh

[विश्वासो वासुकिजः (Vishvas Vasuki)]

On Sun, 19 Nov 2023 at 11:31, Prasanna Venkatesh <viprana...@gmail.com> wrote:

Also, I want to avoid developing the app for a few months and then leaving it for the community to handle problems. This is exactly why I started this project in the first place — developers of the some of the other dict apps have abandoned their work due to lack of time, financial benefits, interest, etc, leaving their apps outdated and buggy.

This is a good thought. I should note though, that none of those other apps were open source, which in my mind is the reason they are prone to go irrevocably dodo. (I even tried digging up contact details of the developer of ebdic etc.. If only I had the source code, I would've been motivated to keep it published!) Hence my belief that open-sourcing is excellent risk mitigation.

 

There are many such features I have planned for the app. Most of these will be implemented in first phase (i.e. development phase) which will be for 1 year. It may also include new features suggested by the community.  For the next two years, it will be maintance phase -- updates, bug fixes, other new minor features. I intend to dedicate approximately 20 hrs/month to this project during the entire period.

Keeping these things in mind, I would need $200/month to help me sustainably contribute to the project for the next three years. It would include costs of maintenance and app store publication as well.

There you have it folks! What part of the costs are you able to meet? 

> Make it free - better not to bother scholars with money stuff. I don't think you'll earn more than a tiny bit (though with the below, it might have broader appeal). 

If I can receive enough funding, I will certainly release it for free. As you might already know, there is at the least the cost of publishing (Apple Developer Program - $99/year and Andoird Play Store Developer account - $25). And I have no plans of cluttering the app with ads.

I see - makes sense to recover costs for app publishing at-least. In case of Android, glad that it's a one time cost. (I already have a play store dev account if it helps).  

Even in case of publishing in the store as a paid app, it would be good to be able to distribute privately for free (as an apk in case of Android).

 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sanskrit-programmers/e60aef81-dabf-4ac8-8856-51987c7c89a4n%40googlegroups.com.

[Ram Sury]

Namonamaḥ,

Apologies if my earlier email wasn't clear or detailed enough. While technology would do part of the work (as in actually giving a front-end to it), it looks like the raw data would need to be collated and tabulated properly for the back-end. That groundwork would still have to be done manually by Sanskrit scholars. This could involve things like having separate fields for:

1. part of speech (POS) information tagged and searchable for each word (kṛt, taddhita, samāsa, avyaya, dhātu, nāmapada, sarvanāma etc)

2. For nouns and adjectives, fields specifying gendered variations (indexed and searchable)

3. grammatical analysis tagged with prakṛti + pratyayas etc - with the ability to search all words having a specific prakṛti or specific pratyaya or both. For verbs, this could include the dhātu-filters -- see https://ashtadhyayi.com/dhatufilters

4. sanskrit traditional one-line explanations (like vigraha-vākyas for samāsas, taddhitas etc) and their english meanings.

5. Filter/tags for Vedic-only vocabulary (and word-forms) distinguished from (a) classical/laukika and (b) common (i.e. common to vaidika & laukika) vocabulary - with corresponding search filters
6. Meanings in Sanskrit (ideally a field each for meanings in each major Indian language) and English translations (linking up to google translate from Sanskrit and from English to other languages). This should ideally be in two fields, one with the literal meaning, and the other with the normative meaning - for example, for the word ambubhṛt the literal meaning would be 'ambu bibharti' (carries/holds water), while the normative meaning would be something like megha (cloud).

7. ability to search by padas (i.e. suP & tiṄ)

8. Vibhakti tables for each noun

9. lakāra tables in kartari (parasmai/atmane), & karmani/bhave for each dhatu

10. ṇic forms for the above (in point 9) with their own kartari/karmani/bhave variants

11. san forms for the above (in point 9) with their own kartari/karmani/bhave variants

12. yaṅ forms for the above (in point 9) with their own kartari/karmani/bhave variants

13. all these variants in points 9-12 above with upasargas added to the dhātus

14. All possible Kṛdantas for all the variations in points 9-13 above
15. One field each for Sanskrit samānārthakas (synonyms) and Sanskrit viruddharthakas (antonyms) 

16. For each simple pada, a field showing a list of common samāsas (with their liṅga & vigraha-vākyas) that the word appears in (either as purva or uttara pada)
17. For each samāsa - meanings based on interpretation of samāsa type (accompanied by vigraha-vākya) - for example meaning if interpreted as tatpuruṣa vs meaning if interpreted as bahuvrīhi etc.
18.  Tagging each word by its core vs basic vs intermediate vs advanced character. For example, sarvanāmas/pronouns and nipātas would have to be learnt, as they are core vocabulary for the language (vocabulary without which the language cannot be spoken). Basic vocabulary are simple everyday vocabulary most useful to beginners and need to be learnt first - words like putra, aśva, rājan, phalam, jana etc. Intermediate words would be the bulk of the remaining words (not already classified under core or basic). Advanced vocabulary would include long/difficult samāsas, rare words, technical/śāstric vocabulary (tagged/indexed/searchable by each śāstra) etc.
19. The entire database should be interlinked such that from each word one can navigate to other related words within the dictionary with a single click (without having to search each related term)

All the above can be thereafter integrated into aṣṭādhyāyi.com as that website has already taken baby steps in this direction (at least for the dhātus though not for the kośas) - or have it separately as another dedicated site. It could also be ported to Goldendict and other mainstream dictionary apps.

It would have to be open-ended, i.e. allowing offline updates and additions to core data, and with version controls and releases that can be released once every year or half-year or quarter.

This is my vision for a modern Sanskrit dictionary that respects the way Sanskrit is structured. It is possible that I may have missed other important good-to-have features - everyone please review and add.

Ideally we need to do this backend work as an open-source project with the help of Sanskrit knowing volunteers before the front-end is developed by Prasanna or developers like him. We could crowdfund the project to cover any necessary expenses.

Regards,
Ram

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sanskrit-programmers/CAFY6qgEEKJ7uB_aS6mUj%3D%3DGPn4F3rFq_Hwcf%2BPuT-6P20h3E8g%40mail.gmail.com.

[विश्वासो वासुकिजः (Vishvas Vasuki)]

On Sat, 18 Nov 2023 at 20:49, Chandrasekharan Raman <chandras...@gmail.com> wrote:

Since the topic of upasarga came up, any plans for bringing this into the dictionary framework? https://github.com/vishvAsa/sanskrit/tree/content/koshaH/upasargArtha-chandrikA

No progress on https://github.com/indic-dict/stardict-sanskrit-vyAkaraNa/issues/10 . If anyone can make it happen, please do.

 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sanskrit-programmers/CAO1ytLz3tcDRtfPQr1-egWO%2BcZJ6nCaJpR6SRu1yPG_PuOh%2Bcw%40mail.gmail.com.

[विश्वासो वासुकिजः (Vishvas Vasuki)]

Looks like this is open source - https://github.com/namndev/QDict , but appears abandoned. 

Also, looks like colordict too isn't available anymore (screenshot from interested samskrita-bharati and GOI workers)!

Any ready alternatives?

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sanskrit-programmers/CAAmPQAqATagw-wJkoL8JbaLB79BD_sQCK7_fw319D7hd%3DPEruA%40mail.gmail.com.

[विश्वासो वासुकिजः (Vishvas Vasuki)]

On Mon, 4 Dec 2023 at 15:59, विश्वासो वासुकिजः (Vishvas Vasuki) <vishvas...@gmail.com> wrote:

Looks like this is open source - https://github.com/namndev/QDict , but appears abandoned. 

Created a fork, renamed, upgraded gradle, tried to make it use dictdata folder by default etc.. 
Current status: Can build and run. But app is slow, misses many frames and gets stuck, and does not find dictionaries.
If anyone can debug / fix and send a PR, I'll gladly publish it. 

[Chandrasekharan Raman]

Looks like sanskritkosha.com (which is now available on desktop as well as iOS/Android app) has solved this interface issue. 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sanskrit-programmers/CAFY6qgFF7YA0aWPcybTr%2B2vcCzY52YSedLPn8oWdfOaA2ptKvA%40mail.gmail.com.

[विश्वासो वासुकिजः (Vishvas Vasuki)]

On Thu, 11 Jan 2024 at 00:59, Chandrasekharan Raman <chandras...@gmail.com> wrote:

Looks like sanskritkosha.com (which is now available on desktop as well as iOS/Android app) has solved this interface issue. 

It has made it less terrible, but problem remains - LOT of dicts (not to mention languages) remain unavailable.

 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sanskrit-programmers/CAO1ytLxOzj4zh8uywtBQp0rYK1BRVCnvwNXuXjrgYmrOds5nZw%40mail.gmail.com.

[Chandrasekharan Raman]

Reviving this thread.. 

Prasanna Venkatesh, any updates on your project?

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sanskrit-programmers/CAFY6qgGFvxjSyGx53mtOYB%3D5%2BeGnCX_fFnnM8UA%3D4yLMZV%2BSHw%40mail.gmail.com.

[Prasanna Venkatesh]

The app is ready and is currently in the (closed) testing phase.

As per Google Play Console policy, at least 20 users have to test it before I can release it to the public. 

Anyone interested, please contact me.

If I get enough testers before the end of this week, you can expect the app to be released by the end of this month.

Regards,

Prasanna Venkatesh

[Ram Sury]

Namaste everyone,

Please  see https://digitalpalidictionary.github.io/ for ideas. It is an open source pali dictionary. I have submitted about 8000+ Sanskrit cognates of Pali terms to this dictionary (and intend to contribute more cognates) and can request the developer to share the codebase and suggestions for further development, if anyone of us can reuse the same and build on top of it.

It is built using python and uses a sqlite DB if I remember correctly what he told me last year. There are GoldenDict NextGen ( https://github.com/xiaoyifang/goldendict-ng/releases/download/v24.05.05-LiXia.ecd1138c/6.7.0-GoldenDict-ng-Installer.exe ), MDict, DictTango and Kindle versions of the dictionary for maximal ease of use. There is a web version of it at dpdict.net which is updated everyday, but the offline versions are updated monthly.

We should have at least the same or better features for a sanskrit dictionary as Sanskrit is technically more amenable to regular grammatical and phonetic transformations than Pali.

Regards,

Ramakrishnan 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sanskrit-programmers/0332c29f-49b5-4113-b88d-77a8a4c104d2n%40googlegroups.com.