[KS] RESOURCE>Major Upgrade of CJKV-E/DDB Dictionaries (Muller)

[Charles Muller]

Subject: "CJKV-E/DDB 2.0"
From: Charles Muller

Dear Colleagues,

After almost ten years of operation since Michael Beddow's initial
creation of the programming structure for the online CJKV-E/DDB
dictionaries, we are delighted to announce a major upgrade of these
web services.

The most basic components of this upgrade are (1) a move to a
dedicated server which will be able to deliver more power to search
functions and greater stability to Unicode-related programming, and
(2) an entire rewriting of the underlying search and indexing
routines, resulting in a noticeable increase in speed and variety of
search results, and links to both internal and external
resources. Some major specific additions and enhancements include:

A. Basic Search

    (1) A middle-level of search results, showing a list of head words
    that contain the search term. Previously, searches for a term would
    produce only the headword itself (when it existed), along with a
    long, scattered list of entry body matches.


    (2) The list of body entry matches, which was previously delivered
    without any particular ordering, is now sorted according to
    traditional ascending radical + stroke count (basically equivalent
    to Unicode hex number).

    (3) The list of matched body entries now includes a snippet of
    context, to give the user some hint of the usefulness of each
    listed match.

    (4) Head word searches via Pinyin, Hangeul, Korean romanization,
    Katakana, and Japanese romanization. Previously, searches for
    headwords via their various renderings in East Asian and romanized
    syllabaries would only yield matches as body entries. Now,
    dedicated search indexes for Pinyin, etc. will yield head word
    matches in a very fast search.

    (5) Searches with or without diacritics are equally and
    transparently supported. Searches employing those romanization
    systems that use diacritics may also be made with or without
    diacritical marks (though in the nature of things the latter may
    produce some false positives). This also applies to searches for
    Sanskrit and Pāli terms in entry bodies.


B. Entry results

    (1) Previously, hyperlinks to terms within displayed entries
    sometimes lacked actual targets, or led to the comprehensive
    external index in a roundabout manner. Now, if a term currently has
    no target in the dictionary concerned or (in the case of the DDB)
    in the external index, it will be shown without a hyperlink.

    (2) If the link goes to the comprehensive external index rather
    than the DDB itself, the user will be taken directly to that
    information, with no other message or page in between.

    (3) If  the headword of a DDB entry is also present in the CJKV-E,
    a hyperlink to that entry will automatically be added to the DDB
    entry when it is displayed. The converse applies to CJKV-E entries:
    if the DDB has an entry for the same headword, a link to it will be
    added to the CJKV-E entry on the display.

    (4) A link for a direct search to the SAT Taishō Database will
    automatically be generated for DDB entries (we are  also able and
    willing to generate links directly into other web-based canonical
    collections if the administrators of those collections are willing
    to provide us with the requisite code for such links).


  C. Behind-the-scenes. There are other enhancements which, while not
visible to users, will greatly improve the function of both
dictionaries. Most importantly:

    (1) The two main indexes (on headwords and fulltext) previously
    used have been completely re-implemented to give faster and more
    flexible matching. In addition, a number of specialized
    supplementary indexes have been added which are automatically
    invoked alongside or instead of the main indexes as and when
    appropriate.

    (2) Index updating has been made significantly faster and
    extensively automated. This means that all the indexes can be
    regenerated as frequently as desired. So from now on, corrections
    to existing entries, as well as newly-contributed entries, will be
    browsable and searchable in their entirety very shortly after
    editorial acceptance (assuming of course, that the Human in-charge
    is not indisposed for some reason or other!).

    (3) Great care has been taken to ensure that hyperlinks on external
    sites to DDB and CJKV-E entries which employ the syntax of the
    previous implementation of the Dictionaries continue to function
    exactly as before.  No existing external links made in accordance
    with the methods previously specified for creating such links will
    be broken as a result of the new infrastructure.


D. CJKV-E

    (1) In the process of preparing this upgrade, a great amount of
    work has been put into improving the structure and content of the
    CJKV-E dictionary, which has stayed pretty much on the back burner
    for the past decade or so. Greater attention will henceforth be
    given to the development of this resource.

    (2) In fact, I am presently working with a small grant that will
    have the effect of drastically increasing the coverage of the
    CJKV-E over the next few years.

I would like to take this opportunity to offer my deepest thanks to
those scholars who have provided staunch and enduring support for the
DDB over the past decade. Most importantly to Michael, who has,
without any monetary remuneration whatsoever, provided state-of-the
art programming of these dictionaries (along with web security and all
other related functions), buttressed by a matched level of
understanding of lexicographical and linguistic principles that has
provided us with so much of the structure and precision that these
online references currently exhibit. Many of the technical
enhancements are based on Michael's work on the Anglo-Norman
Dictionary (http://www.anglo-norman.net/), funded by the Arts and
Humanities Research Council of the United Kingdom, whose indirect but
significant support is gratefully acknowledged.

There is also a core group of approximately 25 scholars, many of them
recognized as leading figures in their own areas of expertise, who
have continued to generously contribute large amounts of material from
their own research notes and glossaries. They have also spent much
time in scouring previously-existent entries, amending, appending, and
entirely rewriting, such that the DDB and CJKV-E are in a steady state
of growth in size and accuracy (the names of these scholars can be
browsed at <http://www.buddhism-dict.net/credits/credits-ddb.html>). I
would also like to thank those scholars who have convinced their
libraries of the value of an institutional subscription. The resulting
funds, albeit modest, have been invaluable to help pay for
infrastructure, web hosting, and the employment of part-time
assistants to do input and editing.

I believe we can say that there are few, if any, other examples in the
academic humanities field where a body of scholars, bonded by
overlapping interests but spread across the globe, have contributed to
a central resource on a such a scale, upholding rigorous standards of
composition, accreditation, and citation, and providing an eminently
practical and useful example of how we can collaborate to build
resources that are far  more substantial than mere anonymous
aggregations.

Digital Dictionary of Buddhism: http://buddhism-dict.net/ddb
CJKV-E Dictionary: http://buddhism-dict.net/dealt

Chuck

----------------------
A. Charles Muller
Center for Evolving Humanities
University of Tokyo
www.acmuller.net
----------------------

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