Author Topic: Mobysaurus V2.4 Preview 2 (Read 26427 times)

Wordzilla · « **on:** January 26, 2006, 10:54 AM »

Mobysaurus V2.4 Preview 2

License: Freeware
Size: 25.51MB

Homepage: https://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Other/mobysaurus

System Requirements:
Screen resolution 1024*768 or higher, Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 or higher

Short Description

Mobysaurus is a free, feature-rich English thesaurus and dictionary software that integrates Moby Thesaurus II, Roget's Thesaurus, GCIDE Dictionary and WordNet -- all royalty-free, powerful and most suitable for everyday reference. With this, you will feel it so much easier to choose the right word or words for every occasion or purpose.

What's new

1. Enhanced Composer

Built-in editing toolbar offers quicker and more convenient editing, and therefore more delightful writing experience.

(Why do we have to switch back and forth between an external reference tool and the word processsor all the time? It’s such a bother, isn’t it?)

2. Standalone, upgradable, user-modifiable spelling checker

Powered by NetSpell

Supports the following languages:

American English, Canadian English, British / Ireland English, and Australian / New Zealand English

The spelling checker automatically determines which dictionary file to use according to system regional and language options.

3. Improved performance

Preview 2 features very low CPU usage when performing a search, and is capable of display unabridged results instantly (in "Root words" mode)

Special thanks to Mouser at www.donationcoder.com for his brilliant ideas and substantial support.

Anderson (the author)

[email protected]

mouser · « **Reply #1 on:** January 26, 2006, 11:06 AM »

i just love this project

anderson you really need to set up a paypal link so that those of us who want to can send you a few bucks to say thank you.

mouser · « **Reply #2 on:** January 26, 2006, 11:10 AM »

The thing that strikes you about mobysaurus is you can feel the 'love of language' in the program. just check the References and Online References menus and you know it's true.

Here's an idea, there is so much in mobysaurus, it's easy to get overwhelmed. Maybe some kind of "simplified use mode" would be an option? just a thought.

Another thought, don't know if it's possible. Instead of radio boxes for selecting different "dictionaries" maybe it would be possible to use checkboxes, and then show all results from activated dictionaries with a nice big divider line betweent them.. might make it easier to just search and say i don't care where the results come from just show me all. dont know if this is feasible though for incremental search results box..

mouser · « **Reply #3 on:** January 26, 2006, 11:14 AM »

ps. took me a while to find the composer (click the little white lightbulb at the top middle).
i'd like to see an option to auto save and auto reload the composer notes - would make it useful as a kind of scratchboard for keeping notes on words.

more requests:
1) option for whether moby should stay resident on clicking close or not.
2) auto detect when user tries to launch mobysaurus twice while its already running and just switch to previous running version instead of starting 2nd copy.

Wordzilla · « **Reply #4 on:** January 26, 2006, 11:55 AM »

ps. took me a while to find the composer (click the little white lightbulb at the top middle).
i'd like to see an option to auto save and auto reload the composer notes - would make it useful as a kind of scratchboard for keeping notes on words.

Definitely "auto-save" and "auto-reload" should be implemented, I'm confident Beta 1 will have them. Thanks!

more requests:
1) option for whether moby should stay resident on clicking close or not.
2) auto detect when user tries to launch mobysaurus twice while its already running and just switch to previous running version instead of starting 2nd copy.

I'm aware of "auto detection and avoidance of multiple instances", but decided to allow users to run multiple copies since some users may want it (because Moby can just display one set of results at a time, for now). I'm looking for an effective way to implement the "Tab browsing" feature.

You can middle-click a Moby tray icon to see the content of that instance of Moby.

You can instantly open/close the main window using customizable hotkeys. (Ctrl + F3, by default)

I agree totally that there should be more options allowing users to decide which way Moby should behave, and I'll work on this.

Wordzilla · « **Reply #5 on:** January 26, 2006, 12:25 PM »

Here's an idea, there is so much in mobysaurus, it's easy to get overwhelmed. Maybe some kind of "simplified use mode" would be an option? just a thought.

Yes, of course. I'll thinking about it, to be user-friendly is essential.

Another thought, don't know if it's possible. Instead of radio boxes for selecting different "dictionaries" maybe it would be possible to use checkboxes, and then show all results from activated dictionaries with a nice big divider line betweent them.. might make it easier to just search and say i don't care where the results come from just show me all. dont know if this is feasible though for incremental search results box..

Since Moby's a big thesaurus, in most cases users have to scroll down to view all results. I always fear that "too many" confuses people and scare them away. Like in "any occurrence" mode, whenever results are getting overwhelming, the search stops, allowing users to review current results carefully and resume the search after that.

I think "tabbed browsing" is more feasible than "divider lines" but it requires much more complex coding. Anyway, worth a try.

The incremental search uses respective word lists for each search mode.

P.S.

The RichTextBox component is still (very) limited in VS.net 2003 (which I'm using), many more features will be available as soon as I get VS.net 2005 installed.

vegas · « **Reply #6 on:** January 27, 2006, 01:28 PM »

Another thought, don't know if it's possible. Instead of radio boxes for selecting different "dictionaries" maybe it would be possible to use checkboxes, and then show all results from activated dictionaries with a nice big divider line betweent them.. might make it easier to just search and say i don't care where the results come from just show me all. dont know if this is feasible though for incremental search results box..
-mouser (January 26, 2006, 11:10 AM)

This is an EXCELLENT idea.

I think "tabbed browsing" is more feasible than "divider lines" but it requires much more complex coding. Anyway, worth a try.
-Mobysaurus (January 26, 2006, 12:25 PM)

As is this.

masu · « **Reply #7 on:** February 06, 2006, 12:50 PM »

Hello mobysaurus,

I appreciate your work on Mobysaurus.
Is it possible to create a one size fit it all resolution package?
currently there are 2 downloads (800x600 and the 1024x786 and above download)

mouser · « **Reply #8 on:** February 06, 2006, 01:07 PM »

this would be nice to be able to resize the window to any "reasonable" size.

ilker1000 · « **Reply #9 on:** February 10, 2006, 04:33 AM »

i can not install mobysaurus to my computer. there is screen appear named installer but there isnt any action. can somebody help me please. thank you

Wordzilla · « **Reply #10 on:** February 10, 2006, 05:01 AM »

Hello mobysaurus,

I appreciate your work on Mobysaurus.
Is it possible to create a one size fit it all resolution package?
currently there are 2 downloads (800x600 and the 1024x786 and above download)
-masu (February 06, 2006, 12:50 PM)

Thanks! I'll work on it soon, shouldn't be hard..

Wordzilla · « **Reply #11 on:** February 10, 2006, 05:08 AM »

i can not install mobysaurus to my computer. there is screen appear named installer but there isnt any action. can somebody help me please. thank you
-ilker1000 (February 10, 2006, 04:33 AM)

Hi ilker1000,

Have you verified the integrity of your downloaded installer? Sounds like data corruption during transfer.

Here're MD5 checksums for 1024 and 800 versions (2.4 Beta 1):

1024: 9A541CA1687A50585248E9A57C0B26B9
800: 5FA10F74FA675EC02392C080FF38A9AF

Anderson

ilker1000 · « **Reply #12 on:** February 10, 2006, 07:29 AM »

hi anderson

i tried my friend computer 1024 works on his computer. i also tried same computer on my computer but it doesnt start anyway

Wordzilla · « **Reply #13 on:** February 10, 2006, 08:26 AM »

hi anderson

i tried my friend computer 1024 works on his computer. i also tried same computer on my computer but it doesnt start anyway
-ilker1000 (February 10, 2006, 07:29 AM)

Can't figure out your problem, maybe insufficient disk free space?

Well, if you still fail to install it, you can copy your friends' installation folder (C:\program files\mobysaurus\, by default) to your computer, and create a shortcut on your desktop for the main executable (mobysaurus.exe). It'll work exactly the same.

mouser · « **Reply #14 on:** February 10, 2006, 08:29 AM »

anderson, if you're interested i can post a little tutorial about how i build all the donationcoder.com installers so that they are both zip compatible for manual extraction or runnable directly as setup programs. to me its the best of both worlds.

Wordzilla · « **Reply #15 on:** February 10, 2006, 08:32 AM »

anderson, if you're interested i can post a little tutorial about how i build all the donationcoder.com installers so that they are both zip compatible for manual extraction or runnable directly as setup programs. to me its the best of both worlds.
-mouser (February 10, 2006, 08:29 AM)

Can't wait to see your post.

allen · « **Reply #16 on:** February 11, 2006, 08:18 AM »

The website seems to not work ATM -- do you have a direct download link?

Wordzilla · « **Reply #17 on:** February 11, 2006, 08:44 AM »

The website seems to not work ATM -- do you have a direct download link?
-allen (February 11, 2006, 08:18 AM)

Might be a temporary server problem, anyway, it's working now.

allen · « **Reply #18 on:** February 11, 2006, 09:59 AM »

Indeed, thanks. So far, enjoying mobys.

Couple quick things
1) When I try to edit the html for any of the template, nothing happens -- does this require a specific editor be installed?

2) System wide keyboard shortcuts to launch mobys., or Handy Moby, directly from the tray would be great. I really appreciate all the keyboard shortcuts within the program, now if I could just get into the program without having to reach for the mouse. (Mouser ate my mouse.)

3) With all the different features/functions, mobysaurus would work really, really well as an MDI -- composer open here, thesaurus there. I understand that would be a huge job to implement, just an idea for the 10 year plan

Wordzilla · « **Reply #19 on:** February 11, 2006, 10:57 AM »

1) When I try to edit the html for any of the template, nothing happens -- does this require a specific editor be installed?

Technically, it's bug (though 99% of all users would never notice). Thanks for letting me know.

I'll correct this in the next release.

You can associate the .mst file extension with your editor program (like notepad) to solve this.

BTW, you can find the template files under the "HTMLGen" folder. Normally there's no need to edit them.

2) System wide keyboard shortcuts to launch mobys., or Handy Moby, directly from the tray would be great. I really appreciate all the keyboard shortcuts within the program, now if I could just get into the program without having to reach for the mouse. (Mouser ate my mouse.)

Well, both Moby and Handy support (customizable) system-wide hotkeys. For Mobysaurus, the hotkey is Ctrl + F3 by default, and for Handy, Ctrl + F11.

How to customize the hotkey?

Mobysaurus: Menu -> Options -> System Hotkey
Handy Moby: Right-click tray icon and go to "System Hotkey"

You're right, the app's still not user-friendly enough. Better work on this.

3) With all the different features/functions, mobysaurus would work really, really well as an MDI -- composer open here, thesaurus there. I understand that would be a huge job to implement, just an idea for the 10 year plan cheesy

Really a good idea. Although a lot harder for me to implement.

mouser · « **Reply #20 on:** February 11, 2006, 11:09 AM »

i hate mdi but i like tabbed interfaces, a tab for each function would be lovely, imho.

allen · « **Reply #21 on:** February 11, 2006, 04:28 PM »

1) When I try to edit the html for any of the template, nothing happens -- does this require a specific editor be installed?

Technically, it's bug (though 99% of all users would never notice). Thanks for letting me know. I'll correct this in the next release.
-Mobysaurus (February 11, 2006, 10:57 AM)

Yeah, I am drawn to tweaking options when I see them. Obviously this isn't a bug that has any real impact on the value of the program

Well, both Moby and Handy support (customizable) system-wide hotkeys. For Mobysaurus, the hotkey is Ctrl + F3 by default, and for Handy, Ctrl + F11.

Ah, you got me. I wasn't paying attention

Great stuff.

You're right, the app's still not user-friendly enough. Better work on this.

Unlike mouser, I rather like the menu based interface, I hide toolbars in most of my applications -- but I just hadn't found everything yet, obviously

Really a good idea. Although a lot harder for me to implement.

Yup, just throwing it out there in case.

Mouser: MDI and tabbed interfaces differ only that in a tabbed interface, all windows are forced maximized, basically. Opera offers both options--the difference basically being whether or not the "tab" bar is shown. In an MDI, you could have all maximized with a tab/button bar --just like a tab interface, while allowing people like me to view multiple sections at once in MDI. This is, of course, a moot point since it's such a big feature request and I imagiine there are more pressing and easier to implement feeatures

Thanks for the quick response, Moby. I'll bother you more later I'm sure

tinyvillager · « **Reply #22 on:** April 06, 2006, 02:44 AM »

Just bumpin the thread to keep Mobysaurus on his toes and anticipating the next release.I really
like this app and hope you continue it's developement.

mouser · « **Reply #23 on:** April 06, 2006, 02:47 AM »

thanks for reminding me that moby deserves some donationcredits!

tinyvillager · « **Reply #24 on:** April 06, 2006, 02:59 AM »

Yep,yep.

I threw him a nickel myself.