Date: Sun, 4 Jan 1998 11:18:27 -0800 (PST) From: patl@phoenix.volant.org To: Ben Pepa <bpepa@msn.bc.ca> Cc: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>, FreeBSD Questions <questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: Encylopedia Britannica, Oxford English Dictionary and FreeBSD Message-ID: <ML-3.3.883941507.3628.patl@asimov> In-Reply-To: <l03110700b0d4f55aab97@[192.168.1.2]>
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> We use Encyclopedia Britannica at our high school and it requires > DOS/Windows as it contains dos executables that run off the CD (through > Netscape). Unless you can find a DOS emulator for FreeBSD, it probably > won't work. It does contain HTML files of each topic/category, but is hard > to search without the executables. No, actually, it doesn't have HTML files for each article. At least not as such. There are a few .htm files for things like the FAQ and the search forms; but the bulk of the data is stored in a compressed database. (/cdrom/db/database.lz and .../database.ht) The .ht file appears to be a binary index or hash table, but it does contain partial paths to html files that must be in the .lz file. But the lz file does not contain standard (g)zip or compress headers; and its contents are accessed via a CGI script which executes MS-Windows (or Mac) binaries. > However, Britannica offers a online internet version that works on all > platforms . Info is available at http://www.eb.com > > I have not used Oxford Dictionary before, so I don't know anything about > it's compatibility. I believe, without any substantial factual basis, that the OED uses an ISO standard electronic book format. But they may also use compression, and probably use binary search programs. You might want to contact both companies and POLITELY suggest that if they were to provide Java versions of their various support programs, it would open their market to virtually every general purpose operating system still in regular use. (Except, of course, for various old machines in the basement of the Pentagon... :-) -Pat
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