NAME

       pdict - a perl client for accessing network dictionary servers

SYNOPSIS

       pdict [OPTIONS] word

DESCRIPTION

       pdict is a client for the Dictionary server protocol (DICT), which is used to query
       natural language dictionaries hosted on a remote machine.  When used in the most simple
       way,

           % pdict word

       pdict will look for definitions of word in the dictionaries hosted at dict.org. If no
       definitions are found, then dict will look for words which are similar, and list them:

           % pdict bonana
             no definition for "bonana" - perhaps you meant:
               banana, bonanza, Banana, Bonanza, Bonasa

       This feature is only available if the remote DICT server supports the soundex or
       Levenshtein matching strategies.  You can use the -stats switch to find out for yourself.

       You can specify the hostname of the DICT server using the -h option:

           % pdict -h dict.org dictionary

       A DICT server can support a number of databases; you can use the -d option to specify a
       particular database.  For example, you can look up computer-related terms in the Free On-
       line Dictionary Of Computing (FOLDOC) using:

           % pdict -h dict.org -d foldoc byte

       To find out what databases (dictionaries) are available on a server, use the -dbs option:

           % pdict -dbs

       There are many dictionaries hosted on other servers around the net; a list of some of them
       can be found at

           http://www.dict.org/links.html

   MATCHING
       Instead of requesting word definitions, you can use pdict to request a list of words which
       match a pattern.  For example, to look for four-letter words starting in 'b' and ending in
       'p', you would use:

           % pdict -match -strategy re '^b..p$'

       The -match option says you want a list of matching words rather than a definition.  The
       -strategy re says to use POSIX regular expressions when matching the pattern ^b..p$.

       Most DICT servers support a number of matching strategies; you can get a list of the
       strategies provided by a server using the -strats switch:

           % pdict -h dict.org -strats

OPTIONS

       -h server or -host server
           The hostname for the DICT server. If one isn't specified then defaults to dict.org.

       -p port or -port port
           Specify the port for connections (default is 2628, from RFC 2229).

       -d dbname or -database dbname
           The name of a specific database (dictionary) to query.

       -m or -match
           Look for words which match the pattern (using the specified strategy).

       -i dbname or -info dbname
           Request information on the specified database.  Typically results in a couple of pages
           of text.

       -c string or -client string
           Specify the CLIENT identification string sent to the DICT server.

       -D or -dbs
           List the available databases (dictionaries) on the DICT server.

       -s strategy or -strategy strategy
           Specify a matching strategy. Used in combination with -match.

       -S or -strats
           List the matching strategies (used in -strategy) supported by the DICT server.

       -I or -serverinfo
           Request information on the selected DICT server.

       -help
           Display a short help message including command-line options.

       -doc
           Display the full documentation for pdict.

       -version
           Display the version of pdict

       -verbose
           Display verbose information as pdict runs.

       -debug
           Display debugging information as pdict runs.  Useful mainly for developers.

KNOWN BUGS AND LIMITATIONS

       ·   pdict doesn't know how to handle firewalls.

       ·   The authentication aspects of RFC 2229 aren't currently supported.

       ·   Display of list results (eg from -strats and -dbs) could be better.

       ·   pdict isn't very smart at handling combinations of options.

       ·   Currently no support for a configuration file - will add one soon.

SEE ALSO

       www.dict.org
           The DICT home page, with all sorts of useful information.  There are a number of other
           DICT clients available.

       dict
           The C dict client written by Rik Faith; the options are pretty much lifted from Rik's
           client.

       RFC 2229
           The document which defines the DICT network protocol.

           http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/htbin/rfc/rfc2229.html

       Net::Dict
           The perl module which implements the client API for RFC 2229.

VERSION

       $Revision: 1.2 $

AUTHOR

       Neil Bowers <neil@bowers.com>

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (C) 2002 Neil Bowers. All rights reserved.

       This script is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same
       terms as Perl itself.