Support for finding definitions and meanings of words

[hold7door]

Thanks for this. Recently started learning GO. Thought this might be a good exercise.

I worked on adding support for a dictionary service. So you can find definition of a word in different parts of speech like this -

dig play.dictionary @dns.toys

play.                   1       IN      TXT     "noun:" "Activity for amusement only, especially among the young."
play.                   1       IN      TXT     "verb:" "To act in a manner such that one has fun; to engage in activities expressly for the purpose of recreation or entertainment."

Internally, it uses the API from https://dictionaryapi.dev/. Response from the API can be large with multiple meanings, and DNS packet size has limits, so the result from service is trimmed a bit to fetch one definition per part of speech.

A lot of reference for implementation was taken from the weather service.

It's on my forked repo at - https://github.com/hold7door/dns.toys/tree/dictionary.

If you are okay with it, I'll submit a PR.

[knadh]

Good job @hold7door! Your implementation is neat. I'd been thinking of adding a dictionary service, but with WordNet though.

I think that would be a better approach as it would just need a local WordNet installation to get the data from. Depending on an external HTTP API for what is essentially static data doesn't seem ideal. The service can get the data by:

• using a parser lib (1, 2). Ideal.
• exec() the wn command and caching the results in-memory. Not great, but works.

To play around with WordNet: online demo or a local installation (eg: apt install wordnet):

$ wn apple -over

Overview of noun apple

The noun apple has 2 senses (first 1 from tagged texts)

1. (1) apple -- (fruit with red or yellow or green skin and sweet to tart crisp whitish flesh)
2. apple, orchard apple tree, Malus pumila -- (native Eurasian tree widely cultivated in many varieties for its firm rounded edible fruits)

Maybe you'd be interested in implementing this?

[hold7door]

WordNet looks great. This way we won't have to be dependent on availability of the external service.

Will work on the implementation, using the wnram parser library.

[hold7door]

Hi @knadh ,

Implemented it using WordNet and wnram as the parser. You can check the forked repo at - dictionary-v2.

Output is almost the same as before. Additionally, one example will also be shown.

dig play.dictionary @dns.toys

play.                   1       IN      TXT     "verb:" "contend against an opponent in a sport, game, or battle" "Princeton plays Yale this weekend"
play.                   1       IN      TXT     "verb:" "put (a card or piece) into play during a game, or act strategically as if in a card game" "He is playing his cards close to his chest"
play.                   1       IN      TXT     "noun:" "gay or light-hearted recreational activity for diversion or amusement" "it was all done in play"
play.                   1       IN      TXT     "noun:" "the act of playing for stakes in the hope of winning (including the payment of a price for a chance to win a prize)" "his gambling cost him a fortune"

[knadh]

This is excellent @hold7door! There are are couple cosmetic fixes I'd like to make, if you don't mind. Please go ahead and send a PR. Thanks again.

[hold7door]

Yes, Of course ! Thanks !