From a26f850c2372718d2b69d6b258d686c68ddba5ff Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: "Gabriel A. Giovanini" <mail@gabrielgio.me>
Date: Sat, 20 Apr 2024 21:07:51 +0200
Subject: ref: Better doc and makefile

It adds README explaining how to compile and install.

Makefile allows to install dict system wide.
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 README.md | 78 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 78 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 README.md

(limited to 'README.md')

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+# Iterative dictionary
+
+The goal is to provide a frictionless dictionary searching experience: you type
+and the words show up on your prompt. Not need to wait a http request to go
+through.
+
+As of right now, dict just provides a thin layer on top of sqlite's fts5[^1]
+virtual table with support of spellfix[^2] for word suggestion. 
+
+The whole database is loaded in memory for faster search and import process,
+which means that this application will consume substantial amounts of memory.
+On DE-EN dictionary, for example, it uses ~300MB, more then dict.cc tab on
+firefox (but less the most electron application out there)
+
+# Compiling
+
+You will need go, gcc and sqlite-dev, then you can just run
+
+```sh
+make
+```
+
+For development you can run:
+
+```sh
+make run     # run the ui with default values
+make import  # run the importer with default values
+make version # run the version command
+```
+
+# Installing
+
+To install locally you may run:
+
+```sh
+PREFIX=$(HOME)/.local make install
+```
+
+Or for a system wide istall:
+
+```sh
+sudo make install
+```
+
+# Usage
+
+To run the importer you will need to download dict.cc dictionary.
+First go to its request page[^3] and select your dictionary of choice.
+Once you download and unzip run the following command:
+
+```sh
+dict import --input dict.txt --output main.dict
+```
+
+Once the import process is complete[4] you can run the ui.
+
+```sh
+dict ui --database main.dict
+```
+
+# TODO
+
+- On disk operation: to reduce memory footprint we can read from the disk. We
+  would need to remove the instance response, since that is not possible
+  reading from the disk.
+- Better coloring on the list.
+- Better default path for sqlite database making use of XDG variables.
+- [optional] Multi dictionary support. Support more than one dict at once.
+- Async response. Even though in memory is fast enough most often it can have
+  some hiccups with 2 letter queries. 
+- Finish server
+- Alpine package
+
+
+[^1]: https://sqlite.org/fts5.html
+[^2]: https://www.sqlite.org/spellfix1.html
+[^3]: https://www1.dict.cc/translation_file_request.php
+[4]: It may take some time depending the size of the dictionary you selected
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