Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!hplabs!hplabsz!mayer
From: mayer@hplabsz.HPL.HP.COM (Niels Mayer)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Announcing XWEBSTER version 1.10 -- A dictionary browser.
Summary: free software for your face
Message-ID: <3030@hplabsz.HPL.HP.COM>
Date: 7 Mar 89 04:41:19 GMT
Reply-To: mayer@hplabs.hp.com (Niels Mayer)
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Labs, Software Technology Lab, Palo Alto, CA.
Lines: 67
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Summary:

	Xwebster is used to look up words in the online copy of Webster's
	7th dictionary, stored at SRI-NIC and also available on machines
	located at Boston U., Indiana U, Purdue U., MIT, Stanford, etc. In
	order to run xwebster you must have access to a webster server.

What's new:

	The old xwebster program (version 1.01) from the X11r3 contrib tape
	had some known problems when I released it, as documented in the
	xwebster.README file. In particular, xwebster(1.01) did not handle
	webster server disconnects gracefully.

	Fortunately, Mark Moraes <moraes@csri.toronto.edu> found a way to
	make it	handle server disconnects properly. So now, you can leave
	xwebster on your screen all the time. When you need to look up a
	word, xwebster will automatically reconnect you to one of the
	webster servers you have specified in ~/.Xdefaults

	Mark Moraes also fixed some stupid errors on my part that caused
	Xwebster to dump core when running under SunOS 3.5. I didn't notice
	these problems when testing Xwebster under HPUX 6.21.

	Moraes added a manpage, an Imake file, and converted Xwebster to
	work under the R3 Xtoolkit Intrinsics and the R3 HP Xwidgets (from
	X11r3/contrib/widgets/Xhp/Xw + Martin Friedmann's patch on
	expo.lcs.mit.edu:contrib/Xhp.patch.works.tar.Z). Now Xwebster
	should be a kosher X-Consortium program. I'm hoping the
	powers-that-be include it in the X11r4/clients/xwebster directory
	and include the HP Xwidgets in X11r4/lib/Xw.

	This release includes Moraes' enhancements, along with a few
	bugfixes that I made to Moraes' code, some improvements to Xwebster's
	robustness, more documentation, etc.


Where to get xwebster:

	I've put all the xwebster files on expo.lcs.mit.edu. They're in the
	contrib directory:

	-rw-rw-rw-  1 ftp          5959 Mar  6 21:52 xwebster.README
	-rw-rw-rw-  1 ftp         37916 Mar  6 22:45 xwebster.r3.patch.Z
	-rw-rw-rw-  1 ftp         42782 Mar  6 21:57 xwebster.tar.Z

	Xwebster.r3.patch.Z is a patch that can be applied to the original
	webster from the directory X11r3/contrib/clients/xwebster.

Where to get the webster server:

	I occasionally get mail on this, so I thought I'd answer now once
	and for all. The server itself is running at a number of
	universities and institutes. The code for the server is available
	from these universities as well. However, I don't think these 
	universities are at liberty to give away the copyrighted dictionary
	data. If anybody can legally get their hands on the webster's 
	dictionary data, I'd love to know how. I know that NeXT bought the
	data for their webster's dictionary application. I haven't
	contacted Merriam-Webster to find out if purchasing the data is
	possible. Let me know if you've got answers on this.
	
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
	    Niels Mayer -- hplabs!mayer -- mayer@hplabs.hp.com
		       Hewlett-Packard Laboratories
			      Palo Alto, CA.
				   *