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Re: How to make Emacs popular again.
From: |
Jean Louis |
Subject: |
Re: How to make Emacs popular again. |
Date: |
Thu, 1 Oct 2020 17:39:29 +0300 |
User-agent: |
Mutt/1.14.0 (2020-05-02) |
* Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> [2020-10-01 16:08]:
> > From: Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>
> > Cc: philipk@posteo.net, eduardoochs@gmail.com, spacibba@aol.com,
> > emacs-devel@gnu.org, dgutov@yandex.ru, jamtlu@gmail.com
> > Date: Thu, 01 Oct 2020 00:13:20 -0400
> >
> > > https://hewgill.com/dict/
> >
> > Unfortunately, it is a "site", meaning a server you have to contact
> > over the internet.
> >
> > The tendency to involve other people's computers in doing jobs that
> > you could do on your own computer is a fundamental wrong turning in
> > computing practice. 'dict' is an example of this problem.
> >
> > We need to lead people away from that paradigm, not adapt our
> > activities to fit into it.
>
> I understand the general issue with using services, but in this case
> the server just sends the description of a word taken from a
> dictionary. Aren't we a tad too radical, perhaps even extreme, in
> this case? It's not like the server calculates something that could
> be subverted by a server we don't control. What harm could be done by
> looking up a word? And how is it different from the command we have
> that queries an Internet search engine (M-s M-w)? Or from asking an
> SMTP server to send an email message?
As long as dict database of Wiktionary exists, as I think, by the
license, it should exist, so I have asked the webmaster to tell me
about that.
If the database does not exist, server can go down any time, and users
will be left in rain.
Relying on a server is not good, it is always better that local
dictionaries can be installed, it is cost efficient for a university,
school or any network to rely on their own computers, and not remote
computers.
Dictionary must be made accessible offline, just as paper dictionaries
are.