Adding a Dictionary
Some time ago I had been trying to install Goldendict, WordNet, and Artha in Fedora and CentOS. Both Goldendict and Artha work with the WordNet dictionary.
I am discussing a dictionary and not a spell checker.
Artha installs fine but is designed with an annoying feature. Manually launching the app results in the app always launching minimized in the system tray. While that might make sense when launched as an autostart app when starting the desktop, this mode makes no sense when manually launching for a quick one word check. Starting in this manner means an extra mouse click to use the app. This is a classic WTF usability annoyance.
A bug with Goldendict and WordNet is confusing and annoying. Goldendict refuses to recognize the WordNet dictionary unless the Stardict dictionary is installed.
In Fedora, installing the Stardict dictionary files results in a mutual dependency of installing Stardict. Why would users want to install Stardict when they want to use Goldendict?
There is a nominal work-around of using rpm --nodeps to force installing just the dictionary files. Then magically Goldendict recognizes the WordNet files.
There is no startdict-dic-en package for CentOS. While probably frowned upon, the package contains only four files and the Fedora package can be used in CentOS 7. Same magic there, with Goldendict then recognizing the WordNet dictionary.
I am guessing the Goldendict/WordNet bug exists because of the presumption of being online 24/7 and only using online dictionaries. This offline combination likely never was tested.
The Artha annoyance seems to be based on a presumption that users want the app running all the time in order to respond to hot keys. Users who want to use Artha only when needed suffer the annoyance.
These are the kind of nuisance bugs that motivate new users to claim Linux does not “just work.”
Posted: Category: Usability Tagged: General
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