[KS] Dictionary of East Asian Buddhist Terms

Charles Muller acmuller at human.toyogakuen-u.ac.jp
Thu Jul 29 01:48:22 EDT 1999


Colleagues,

I am extremely happy to be able to tell you that I have just finished the
development of the first "stand-alone" version of the Dictionary of East
Asian Buddhist Terms (DEABT), using the Microsoft Help Compiler program
called HTML-Help.

What this program does is compile/compress the thousands of separate little
files that comprise the dictionary into a single file, while adding a very
fast and easy-to-use Search/Index function. So when you open the dictionary,
you see the same sort of view that you would if you clicked on HELP from
anywhere in Windows: An HTML document window on the right, and a Table of
Contents and Index on the left.

Using the index function, you can type any word that you are looking for (in
either Roman or Chinese characters), and the term appears immediately as you
type. You really have to try this to see how nice it is!!

Since it is a single file (4 MB), you can just download it and put it
anywhere on your hard drive that you like--you don't need to do any other
special setup. When you click on the file, your Windows Help program will
automatically start up.

The dictionary is encoded in Unicode (UTF-8), enabling the use of the full
gamut of international characters, including all diacritically-marked
letters needed for Buddhist Studies. To fully take advantage of the
dictionary you will need CJK font support on your system (this is easy to
do, and free), but those who don't read Chinese should also find the
dictionary very useful, with its extensive index of English, Sanskrit, Pali,
Tibetan, and romanized East Asian terms. Also, the coverage is by no means
limited to East Asian Buddhism, as there are a large number of Indian terms,
and a small, but growing number of Tibetan terms included.

Finally, the DEABT comes together, fully interlinked with the Dictionary of
East Asian Literary Terms (DEALT), an extensive dictionary of standard
(non-Buddhist) terminology for students of East Asian, literature,
philosophy, religion, history, etc.

Please remember that the DEABT and DEALT are works-in-progress, so reports
of errors or suggestions for improvements are greatly welcomed. Scholars who
would like to contribute to the development of these compilations are
strongly encouraged to do so. Please write me.

The download site is:

http://www.human.toyogakuen-u.ac.jp/~acmuller/download/index.html

Regards,

Charles Muller
Toyo Gakuen University




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