[CLUE-Talk] The Oxford English Dictionary

[Joseph A. Nagy, Jr.]

On Wed, Jun 23, 2004 at 11:58:41PM -0600, Matt Gushee wrote the following:
> On Mon, Jun 21, 2004 at 12:43:20PM -0400, Angelo Bertolli wrote:
> > 
> > >Alas, it is Windows-only.  No Mac, even.  I am curious if anyone on the 
> > >list has this?  Any chance it works with WINE?  It's a long shot, but I 
> > >thought I'd ask.
> > > 
> > >
> > Why is it Windows only?  I mean I looked at the thing, it must have some 
> > crazy compression to fit all of that on just one CD.  If you can find 
> > out what kind of format it is on the CD, maybe there's a simple way to 
> > look at it--something that would make you feel comfortable that you 
> > didn't need to use WINE?
> 
> Hmm ... well, a co-worker of mine had an electronic OED several years
> ago, and if I remember right the package included a Windows-based
> proprietary viewer. So deciphering the data format might well not be
> good enough.

I find it odd that the OED folks choose a proprietary viewer and data to
display definitions of words in the English language (definitions which by
all account should not be copyrightable). I could understand them wanting
money for the work put into maintaining the OED but to go so far as to only
support one group of computer users (no matter how large that group is) is
singularly ridiculous.

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