14 replies to this topic

[dequesi]

Hi everyone,

I'm new here, so excuse me if I'm clumsy. I hope I won't step on too many toes ;-)

As I'm currently reading "A Dance with Dragons" on my Kindle and I have a terrible memory, I wish I could check AWOIAF with the same ease I can check the English dictionary.

So I set myself to work on this, and I'm halfway there!

Here's what I got so far:
- the whole cast of characters in one single document
- Kindle acknowledges the document as a dictionary
- single-word entries can be checked as usual, just by placing the cursor at the beginning of the word (e.g. "Melisandre", "Irri")
- multiple-word entries can be found through search (e.g. "Tyrion Lannister")
- pictures are visible! (this is my latest achievement from 5 minutes ago ;-)

As you can see, that's already quite useful! And of course I'm not doing it only for myself, but looking forward to share it with the community.

Unfortunately I'm stuck. There's a lot more stuff I'd like to include in this "Kindle Dictionary of Ice and Fire" and I'm having trouble finding my way to achieve it:
- automatic detection of multiple-word entries (or conversion of multiple-word entries to several single-word entries)
- display (or removal) of family trees (they currently block dictionary browsing)
- integration with regular english dictionary (no idea how to go about this one)
- integration of the rest of entries, not only characters (that's more a question of time, patience, and software not collapsing under the dataload ;-)
- plenty of other details we may come up with!

As you can see, I'm gonna need some help. Anybody interested in the idea? Feel free to reply or PM me.

Cheers everyone!

Edited by dequesi, 19 July 2011 - 03:22 PM.

[Scafloc]

So if I understand correctly you are making an interface between the Kindle and the wiki. Some thing's already works others less.

I have no idea about the software that Kindle uses so I cannot help you with that. What may be possible (in the future) is that we can create a skin that is meant for Kindle (and possible for other eReaders). In a dedicated skin we could for example leave out family-trees if these are a problem for Kindles.
I don't want to discourage you but this will take some time. As long as the bridge between the forum and the wiki does not function properly it is not possible to do something for the skins. And when it is working it will take some time to build up some experience with skins manipulating.

[Josiah Rowe]

For what it's worth, there's already an app for iOS (that is, for iPhones and iPads) which does much of what you describe.  It's called "Game of Thrones Companion", and it uses the (very brief) summaries from the Wikipedia articles on characters, places, etc.

[Bahimiron]

Based on the description it sounds like he's making a dictionary that will suppliment the dictionary that comes with the Kindle. For those who don't know, while reading a book you can move your cursor to the front of any word and if it's in the dictionary that comes with the Kindle it will pop up at the bottom of the page telling you what the word means. You move over 'neeps' and at the bottom it will say 'Scots word for rutabaga'. Presumably this Kindle Dictionary of Ice and Fire would help folks keep characters straight. Highlight 'Lord Fartgnome of Crappington' and at the bottom of the screen it would say 'Lord Fartgnome Crappington is the Lord Poobum's Plop in the Reach.'

The key here is that you don't have to put your Kindle down to grab your iPhone or look online or flip to the spoilery appendix. You don't even have to close the book and open the godawful browser. Just hover over a name and get the info you want. If so, that'd be pretty neat. You'd want to work to avoid spoilers, though. No one needs to know that Lord Fartgnome dies at the end.

Edited by Bahimiron, 22 July 2011 - 09:35 AM.

[dequesi]

Bahimiron got it totally right. For those who don't know how Kindle goes, here's some clarifying: the dictionary is a fixed document, so the user is not checking the actual online version of the wiki but an archive of it. Currently I am working on a version that I downloaded are the release date of A Dance With Dragons, so there shouldn't be any spoilers for it and it's safe to check it while reading. In the future, the dictionary would need updating, which means making the whole thing up from scratch again.

This is an obvious disadvantage, but the system has advantages too: no connection is required, as the dictionary file is stored in the gadget. Many Kindle models have no 3G, and all of them have a very poor browser (if at all), so online checking is terribly impractical or plain impossible. Also, as Bahimiron points out, the reader doesn't need to exit the book to enter the browser, but flips back and forth between novel and dictionary very easily.

I have no idea whether a Kindle dictionary is usable in any other e-book readers but I'm willing to find out.

I'm guessing if the wiki administrators would give me access to a backup copy of the online database, I might be able to manipulate the data more precisely and come up with better results, but I have no idea if that is possible or they would be willing to grant access to a newbie and a stranger. There goes the suggestion anyway.

For now, I'm still fighting with the charts. I'll keep you posted.

[honeybunny]

Wonderful idea... I always had to use my phone to check on characters while reading on kindle.. that would make everything tons easier. Thanks for your effort.

[Buster]

Bahimiron, on 22 July 2011 - 09:34 AM, said:

Lord Fartgnome dies at the end.

OMG SPOILERS!
-------------
This dictionary sounds awesome! I'm reading ADwD on the Kindle and this would be insanely useful.

Edited by Buster, 24 July 2011 - 01:52 AM.

[dequesi]

Glad you guys are interested.
As I said, the latest version is quite faulty but relatively usable. I'll try to polish it a bit and make it available in the next few days, for everybody (like me) who's currently reading ADfD.

[The Pale Griffin]

Not to be a downer, but this isn't a Wiki of Ice and Fire discussion. It is a Objects of Ice and Fire discussion. I'm going to ask a mod to move this.

[dequesi]

The Pale Griffin, on 24 July 2011 - 11:25 AM, said:

Not to be a downer, but this isn't a Wiki of Ice and Fire discussion. It is a Objects of Ice and Fire discussion. I'm going to ask a mod to move this.

Not sure I agree, the dictionary is not an object, but a way to access the contents of the Wiki from a different gadget. I don't mind either way, the moderators can decide.

[Salva Pineda Morente]

Hi, how can I donwload this kindle dictionary? I think it is very useful. Thanks!

[jamjim]

Hey folks... this thread seems a bit dead but here goes anyway...
I had the idea that it would be fab to have some kind of dictionary plugin for kindle so that I could lookup who characters are.
I searched for "kindle dictionary plugin" on google and this post was in the 1st page of search results!
Exactly what I was looking for!

Now, I'm hoping that this is not a dead thread, and that dequesi can make this fab facility available to me.

Thanks for the effort, hope it's available

[Scafloc]

It would be fun but it can only be created by a company that has the right to sell the kindle as the content of the (electronic) books are copyright.

The content of the wiki can be used (Creative Commons license)  so the publisher should only add links to the subjects in the book and with each link call the api of the wiki to get the text of the article (and present that text in a good way).

Edit: at the moment there is nothing of the like.

Edited by Scafloc, 05 April 2012 - 05:41 PM.

[jamjim]

Scafloc, on 05 April 2012 - 05:39 PM, said:

It would be fun but it can only be created by a company that has the right to sell the kindle as the content of the (electronic) books are copyright.

The content of the wiki can be used (Creative Commons license)  so the publisher should only add links to the subjects in the book and with each link call the api of the wiki to get the text of the article (and present that text in a good way).

Edit: at the moment there is nothing of the like.

Hi Scafloc,

I did some research and I believe that what the OP did is to convert the wiki character list (http://awoiaf.wester...t_of_Characters) into a mobipocket dictionary (.mobi) file. .mobi files are compatible with kindle, and a mobipocket dictionary can be set as the kindle default dictionary.
This is a relatively simple process - there are a lot of guide out there...
I'm continuing to investigate this, but if the OP is still lurking and is happy to share their work it would be nice

UPDATE:
edit: here is a screenshot of my character reference kindle dictionary:
http://d.pr/Ly3o
Its very basic and has the same issues as the OP with multi-word names.
e.g. "addam" would show "a knight." when the word "addam" is selected in kindle
but  this only matches on the single word  so shows other adams, too.

Edited by jamjim, 11 April 2012 - 04:43 PM.

[Lord Duncan]

A aSoIaF dictionary would be awesome! I own a Kindle Touch and the built-in English dictionary is great to have when reading the books, since a lot of its "medieval" vocabulary is really foreign to me But a dictionary specific to the series would be even better!

Keep it up dequesi!