Formats¶
wuDict reads six common dictionary formats plus its own SQLite3-based files.
| Format | Extensions | Media |
|---|---|---|
| MDict | .mdx |
companion dict.mdd, dict.1.mdd, … archives; .spx audio is auto-converted |
| StarDict | .ifo plus .idx or .idx.gz, plus .dict or .dict.dz |
.syn synonyms; a res/ folder or a res.zip |
| Aard 2 | .slob |
standalone binary with text, images, audio and CSS, etc using zlib, bz2 and lzma2 compression |
| Lingvo DSL | .dsl or .dsl.dz |
dict.dsl.files.zip; UTF-8, UTF-16 and UTF-32 are detected automatically |
| Babylon | .bgl |
resources are inside the file; source and target character sets are detected automatically |
| ZIM | .zim |
everything is inside the file: articles, images, audio and CSS (Kiwix, Wikipedia, Wiktionary) |
| wuDict library | text.db |
optional media.db in the same folder |
How wuDict works¶
A dictionary is available for search the moment wuDict finds it. It reads the dictionary's own index for exact and prefix lookups.
Afterwards wuDict indexes the dictionary in the background: it copies the articles and builds its own indexes into a library folder. Prepared dictionaries search faster, support more modes and use much less memory.
DSL and BGL are prepared as soon as they are opened. Neither format has an index of its own, so there is nothing to search until wuDict has indexed it.
ZIM is the opposite case and is never indexed automatically. Its own index already answers exact and prefix searches straight from the file, using almost no memory even for a whole Wiktionary, and a ZIM is packed far more tightly than a library folder can be - indexing one would take several times the disk the file itself uses. Index it from the dictionary panel when you want contains, full-text or packed media; nothing else changes.
Audio¶
Most pronunciation audio is .mp3, .ogg, or .wav, and plays directly in the browser.
Speex audio (.spx) cannot be played by browsers, so wuDict automatically converts it to
WAV format. The -cgo builds do this without external dependencies. The
-purego flavours need the external speexdec cli utility, which must be installed.