[Request] Support for more dictionaries

[itapun]

Would it be possible to add support for Yomitan dictionaries? Your app is great but I like to reference multiple dictionaries as well as monolingual dictionaries. Jmdict isn't so great.

Yomitan format dictionaries are just a collection of json files in a zip archive. I think support could be added pretty quickly.

[BlueGreenMagick]

Thanks for the feedback!

What are the benefits to using a different dictionary, and in what way is JMdict lacking specifically?

From the start, the software was intentionally designed to use JMdict only, so it actually requires quite a lot of work to support yomitan's format. I thought JMDict was good enough and the tradeoff would be worth it, but I can reconsider if there are significant benefits.

[itapun]

The main benefit is flexibility.

To use my own personal case as an example, I often find that definitions in jmdict can be vague or easily confusing because the Japanese word doesn't always match the English counterparts 1:1. In these instances I like to reference a monolingual dictionary to get a better understanding of the meaning. Also sometimes I find words that are in one dictionary but missing from others, so I like to keep multiple dictionaries installed. And because jmdict is made through community contributions sometimes the definitions are simply incorrect.

Some people also like to switch entirely to monolingual dictionaries when their proficiency in Japanese increases.

There are also multiple formats of dictionaries in the yomitan format such as frequency dictionaries, grammar dictionaries, name dictionaries, kanji dictionaries, slang dictionaries, etc all if which are very helpful. Part of the beauty is that anyone can compile a dictionary to suit their specific needs. And in addition to all of those, jmdict is also available.

[IMakeBotsForYou]

I thought JMDict was good enough and the tradeoff would be worth it, but I can reconsider if there are significant benefits.

The ability to add custom dictionaries is the main reason Yomichan/Yomitan is popular. When mining using Yomitan, people often use monolingual dictionaries to have the monolingual definition..

[donkuri]

The main issue is that not having other dictionaries available heavily limits advanced users that will be reading things that have words whose definition is not included in JMdict. I think this would become very popular if such a functionality were implemented.

[itapun]

A lot of users also like to use multiple dictionaries together because sometimes the definition in one might be more clear, or the definitions may be missing from another.

[MakkyMTC]

Besides what has been mentioned, having the ability to upload our own dictionaries would help people who aren't native English speakers because then we could use Japanese to French, Portuguese, Deutsch, Korean, etc. dictionaries. I speak portuguese so it would be nice to have a dictionary in my language. But the ability to add slang dictionaries, name dictionaries, grammar dictionaries would be a dream come true on ios... I started using Yomikiri a few days ago and I love its features but occasionally I come across words that don't have a definition which is disappointing.

[donkuri]

@BlueGreenMagick I think significant benefits were demonstrated so I'd like to know if this is something that you will consider working on. If not that is fine, but it's been a few months since the issue propped up and there have been no updates.

[BlueGreenMagick]

Sorry about my late response.

Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be able to support custom dictionaries in the near future. JMDict is currently built-in too tightly to the tokenization code (which recognizes word boundaries within a sentence) that I'd basically have to rewrite the core parts to make it replaceable.

I find JMDict to be good enough for my use cases tbh, so it's a lower priority for me. Though it may change when my Japanese skills finally advance enough that I can switch to monolingual dictionaries 🙏🙏

That said, some parts of the suggestions like the name or kanji dictionary will be added soon.

I'm planning to release a large update next week, and it adds the name dictionary JMneDict. This should cover most of the currently missing words. Then the next planned feature on my backlog is the Kanji dictionary.