AppleDict-bin XPath properties

[soshial]

Some AppleDict plist files contain such info:

"DCSElementXPath": {
    "definitions": "//span[contains(@class,\"x_xd0\")][1]/descendant::span[contains(@class,\"x_xd1\") and not(contains(@class,\"t_subsense\"))]/descendant::span[@class=\"df\" or @class=\"xrg\"][1][not(@d:prtl)]",
    "pos": "//span[@class=\"sg\"]/descendant::span[@class=\"pos\"][1]",
    "pronunciation": "(//span[@class=\"pr\" or @class=\"prx\"]/descendant::span[contains(@class,\"ph\")])[1]"
},

Can we use these xpath somehow for the benefit of converting to other formats?

[ilius]

I just saw this.
That's very interesting.
But I'm not sure how we can use it.
We don't process these information when reading from generic (non-structured) HTML-based glossaries.
Best we can do is to have a consistent class like <div class="pos" so it becomes possible to extract them with other tools later. So if the class name is different, should we rename it and fix the CSS? Not sure.

[soshial]

Why renaming? I didn't quite get it.

[ilius]

For consistency and processing. It's no good if different dictionaries use different class names for pos, etc.

[soshial]

Now I get it. Yes, I think this might be beneficial for the future. For example, we can use the same CSS classes when converting from XDXF/TEI into HTML formats.

But I would like to stress and repeat my idea that converting from AppleDict-bin -> AppleDict-src needs an additional special parameter that preserves all data and formatting AS IS without losing any data or such conversions. I reckon, some people might need this for their binary Apple glossaries to make small changes in the source and then compile a binary glossary from the edited source. I created a specific branch in my repo, that has such changes commented out.

[ilius]

I don't support the idea of using closed source dictionaries in the first place.

[soshial]

I agree with you, but sometimes there is no choice (e.g. on macOS there is no good dictionary software).