• What is Dacco?
  
• What is QDacco?
  
• What is QDacco like?
  
• Installation in Debian distributions
  
• Installation in GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, etc.
  
• Configuration
  
• Use
  
• License / contact us
  

What is Dacco?

Dacco is a completely new Catalan-English / English-Catalan dictionary which has been created from the ground up, without building on any existing dictionary. It has been created collaboratively by both Catalan and English speakers. It is a high-quality dictionary which has a large enough number of entries (currently more than 10,000 in each direction) to make it very handy for everyday use. In addition, owing to the project's nature, it is very easy to suggest new words, corrections and extensions to existing entries.

The Dacco dictionaries are available under the LGPL license which allows them to be used by virtually anybody in any way, shape or form, without having to ask for permission first (provided, of course, that you acknowledge the authors - The Dacco Project).

Dacco offers its data in a number of different ways: via the Web, via a FireFox or IE plugin, in PDF format (English-Catalan and Catalan-English) and also via an application called QDacco.

What is QDacco?

QDacco is an application which allows people to use the dictionary in a more dynamic way than is possible with the PDF files and a quicker way than is possible with the online version. Furthermore, it offers a user-friendly interface and direct interaction with the Dacco community; allowing users to suggest words for inclusion in the dictionary and comment on existing entries.

What is QDacco like?

Aesthetics are very important to graphical programs. Below you can see a few images of QDacco in action.

The main window looks like this:

There is a basic and an advanced configuration window:

qDacco also has an incremental search function (find as you type). This means that as you type the word you are looking for, all words which start with the same letters are displayed. Where there is only one word that matches your search, that will be the one you are presented with. Additionally, if we leave an accent off or want to look for similar words, we have a very powerful tool at our disposal.

Qdacco is also able to read entries out loud in English (for those who use GNU/Linux), via a speech synthesizer program called Festival. Unfortunately, it is not currently able to do this in Catalan. However, there is a department of the Generalitat working on providing a Catalan version of Festival and it should, all being well, be available shortly.

It is also possible to suggest a word for inclusion in the dictionary:

and send suggestions and corrections regarding a word that has been found, by using the 'Send comment(s)' button:

Using this form:

Installation in Debian distributions

The unstable and testing versions of Debian for GNU/Linux currently include compiled packages, maintained by Miguel Gea. This means that it is possible to install qDacco using the package manager apt-get or aptitude.

As qDacco is still not in the stable release of Debian (though it will be included in the next stable version), users can download the qDacco or Dacco's .deb file so that they do not have to compile. You must install the packages with "dpkg -i name_packages".

Installation in GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, etc.

If you do not use Debian, you can follow these instructions to compile qDacco:

Firstly, download qDacco (preferably the latest version).

Then you need a copy of Dacco which you can download from the Sourceforge repository here.

In order to compile qDacco in Debian-based distributions you will need the following packages:

• libqt3-mt-dev
  
• qt3-dev-tools
  
• make
  
• g++
  

In order to install these packages, you need to run the following command (you need root access to do this)

apt-get install libqt4-dev libqt4-core libqt4-gui make g++

or

aptitude install libqt4-dev libqt4-core libqt4-gui make g++

Next, unpack the file qDacco-X.tar.gz to the directory in which you would like to install it:

tar -zxvf qDacco-X.tar.gz

Compile as follows:

./configure
make
make install

Then you can run QDacco:

qdacco

Configuration

QDacco is configured when first run. You can always modify your configuration later through the menu "Files -> Configure".

In the basic configuration section you can choose a default dictionary and language, whether or not you want to ignore accents and whether or not you want your searches to be case sensitive. You can also fill in your name and email address so that we know who to acknowledge if you choose to send us suggestions and new entries via qDacco.

In the advanced configuration section there are a number of options:

In the box marked 'dictionary directory' you must indicate which directory on your computer contains the subdirectories 'cateng' and 'engcat'.

In the box marked 'browser' you must indicate which directory contains the browser you wish to use.

In the final section, you must indicate which executable of the Festival speech synthesizer you want to use (for the moment, this is only available for GNU/Linux users and only in English).

Use

Once the program is up and running, all you have to do is begin to enter your word in the 'search' box and move up and down the list of words which begin with those letters with the up and down arrows. When you've selected the word you're after, press 'enter' (or use the 'search' button beneath).

If the word you were after is not found, you can click on the button 'Suggest as a new entry'.

You can send suggestions or comments about the word which has been found by clicking on the button 'Send comment(s)'.

You can switch active dictionary by using the buttons eng>cat and cat>eng just above the search box or by pressing 'Control+D'.

If you click on the 'Paste' icon it will copy the contents of the clipboard to the search box. 'Copy', on the other hand, will copy both the contents of the search box and the text found to the clipboard.

License / problems

qDacco is distributed under the GPL v. 2.0 or later. The license accompanies the program files.

Dacco is available under the LGPL.

If you have any problems, please address them to carles at pinux.info. Ideas and suggestions are most welcome.
--
qdacco was created by (and is maintained by) Carles Pina
qdacco's documentation was written by Jordi Pina