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quick-sdcv.el - Emacs offline dictionary using 'sdcv'

The quick-sdcv package serves as a lightweight Emacs interface for the sdcv command-line interface, which is the console version of the StarDict dictionary application.

This package enables Emacs to function as an offline dictionary.

This integration allows users to access and utilize sdcv dictionary functionalities directly within the Emacs environment, leveraging the capabilities of sdcv to look up words and translations from various dictionary files.

Here are the main interactive functions:

• quick-sdcv-search-at-point: Searches the word around the cursor and displays the result in a buffer.
• quick-sdcv-search-input: Searches the input word and displays the result in a buffer.

Table of Contents

• quick-sdcv.el - Emacs offline dictionary using 'sdcv'
  • Installation
    • Install with straight
  • Usage
  • Customizations
  • Usage
  • Frequently asked question
    • How to make the sdcv buffer replace the current buffer?
    • How to make links appear as links in an sdcv buffer?
    • Evil mode: How to configure the default K key to search for words using quick-sdcv?
    • What is the difference between sdcv (MELPA) and quick-sdcv Emacs packages?
  • Links

Installation

Prerequisite: The sdcv command. It can usually be installed by installing the sdcv package.

Install with straight

To install quick-sdcv with straight.el:

1. It if hasn't already been done, add the straight.el bootstrap code to your init file.
2. Add the following code to the Emacs init file:

(use-package quick-sdcv
  :ensure t
  :straight (quick-sdcv
             :type git
             :host github
             :repo "jamescherti/quick-sdcv.el")
  :custom
  (quick-sdcv-dictionary-prefix-symbol "►")
  (quick-sdcv-ellipsis " ▼ "))

Usage

To retrieve the word under the cursor and display its definition in a buffer:

(quick-sdcv-search-at-point)

To prompt the user for a word and display its definition in a buffer:

(quick-sdcv-search-input)

Customizations

To create a unique buffer for each word lookup, set the following:

(setq quick-sdcv-unique-buffers t)

To perform exact word searches (as opposed to fuzzy searches), use:

(setq quick-sdcv-exact-search t)

To change the prefix character used before dictionary names, replacing the default -->, set:

(setq quick-sdcv-dictionary-prefix-symbol "►")

To customize the sdcv history size:

(setq quick-sdcv-hist-size 100)

To specify the path to the sdcv executable:

(setq quick-sdcv-program "/path/to/sdcv")

To customize the naming convention of the SDCV buffer:

(setq quick-sdcv-buffer-name-prefix "*sdcv"
      quick-sdcv-buffer-name-separator ":"
      quick-sdcv-buffer-name-suffix "*")

To specify a list of dictionaries:

(setq quick-sdcv-dictionary-complete-list '("stardict-WordNet"
                                            "stardict-Webster"
                                            "stardict-eng_eng_main"))

Usage

Below are the commands you can use:

If the current mark is active, the quick-sdcv will translate the region string; otherwise, they will translate the word around the cursor.

Frequently asked question

How to make the sdcv buffer replace the current buffer?

To make K search for the word using quick-sdcv when editing Markdown, you can customize the behavior as follows:

(add-to-list 'display-buffer-alist '("\\*sdcv"
                                       (display-buffer-same-window)))

How to make links appear as links in an sdcv buffer?

To ensure that links appear as clickable links in the SDCV buffer while using quick-sdcv, add the following hook:

(add-hook 'quick-sdcv-mode-hook #'goto-address-mode)

Evil mode: How to configure the default K key to search for words using quick-sdcv?

In Evil mode, the K key in normal mode is typically bound to lookup the word under the cursor. By default, this usually triggers a help function.

To make K search for the word using quick-sdcv when editing, for instance, a markdown file (e.g. README.md), you can customize the behaviour as follows:

(add-hook 'markdown-mode-hook
          #'(lambda()
              (setq-local evil-lookup-func #'quick-sdcv-search-at-point)))

To make K look up a word in quick-sdcv buffers, you can also customize the evil-lookup-func variable using:

(add-hook 'quick-sdcv-mode-hook
          #'(lambda()
              (setq-local evil-lookup-func #'quick-sdcv-search-at-point)))

What is the difference between sdcv (MELPA) and quick-sdcv Emacs packages?

The quick-sdcv Emacs package is a fork of sdcv.el version 3.4, which is available on MELPA. The primary differences between the two packages are as follows:

• Less dependencies: Quick-sdcv does not require any external dependencies; sdcv, on the other hand, installs popup, pos-tip, and showtip.
• Customize the buffer name:: New variables to customize whether the word is included in the buffer name, as well as the prefix, separator, and suffix of the buffer name (quick-sdcv-unique-buffers, quick-sdcv-buffer-name-prefix, quick-sdcv-buffer-name-separator, and quick-sdcv-buffer-name-suffix). When the buffer is dedicated to a specific word, refresh it only when the buffer is created.
• Improved Outline Minor Mode: The quick-sdcv package fixes the outline minor mode for dictionary folding, enabling users to collapse all definitions for quicker navigation through dictionaries.
• Default Language Settings: Various issues have been addressed, including changing the default language setting from Chinese (zh) to nil, providing a more neutral starting point.
• Buffer Customization: The quick-sdcv package employs display-buffer, allowing users to customize the display of the sdcv buffer and control its placement through display-buffer-alist.
• Removal of bugs and Warnings: All Emacs warnings have been eliminated and bugs fixed. (e.g., when sdcv-search-at-point cannot locate the word under the cursor)
• Code Simplification: The code has been simplified by removing unused variables and omitting features like posframe, text-to-speech using the 'say' command, the quick-sdcv-env-lang variable, and functions such as (quick-sdcv-scroll-up-one-line, quick-sdcv-scroll-down-one-line, quick-sdcv-next-line and quick-sdcv-prev-line) which are similar Emacs features. This simplification makes quick-sdcv easier to understand, maintain, and use by focusing solely on dictionary lookup functionality. Features like posframe and text-to-speech, which are not essential to core usage, are better suited as separate packages.
• Keybindings removal: The default keybindings have been removed from quick-sdcv-mode to prevent conflicts with other modes and keeps the mode lightweight and adaptable for users’ preferences.
• New options: quick-sdcv-ellipsis, quick-sdcv-hist-size, quick-sdcv-exact-search, quick-sdcv-buffer-name-prefix, quick-sdcv-buffer-name-separator, quick-sdcv-buffer-name-suffix, quick-sdcv-verbose
• Various improvements: Unset the SDCV_PAGER environment variable, Ensure the buffer and the SDCV output are in UTF-8, Enhance dictionary representation with UTF-8 characters, Implement error handling for cases when the sdcv program is not found.

Links

• You can download sdcv dictionaries from http://download.huzheng.org/dict.org/
• quick-sdcv.el @GitHub
• quick-sdcv.el @MELPA
• The sdcv command-line interface (prerequisite).

Other Emacs packages by the same author:

• minimal-emacs.d: This repository hosts a minimal Emacs configuration designed to serve as a foundation for your vanilla Emacs setup and provide a solid base for an enhanced Emacs experience.
• compile-angel.el: Speed up Emacs! This package guarantees that all .el files are both byte-compiled and native-compiled, which significantly speeds up Emacs.
• outline-indent.el: An Emacs package that provides a minor mode that enables code folding and outlining based on indentation levels for various indentation-based text files, such as YAML, Python, and other indented text files.
• vim-tab-bar.el: Make the Emacs tab-bar Look Like Vim’s Tab Bar.
• easysession.el: Easysession is lightweight Emacs session manager that can persist and restore file editing buffers, indirect buffers/clones, Dired buffers, the tab-bar, and the Emacs frames (with or without the Emacs frames size, width, and height).
• elispcomp: A command line tool that allows compiling Elisp code directly from the terminal or from a shell script. It facilitates the generation of optimized .elc (byte-compiled) and .eln (native-compiled) files.
• tomorrow-night-deepblue-theme.el: The Tomorrow Night Deepblue Emacs theme is a beautiful deep blue variant of the Tomorrow Night theme, which is renowned for its elegant color palette that is pleasing to the eyes. It features a deep blue background color that creates a calming atmosphere. The theme is also a great choice for those who miss the blue themes that were trendy a few years ago.
• Ultyas: A command-line tool designed to simplify the process of converting code snippets from UltiSnips to YASnippet format.
• dir-config.el: Automatically find and evaluate .dir-config.el Elisp files to configure directory-specific settings.
• flymake-bashate.el: A package that provides a Flymake backend for the bashate Bash script style checker.
• flymake-ansible-lint.el: An Emacs package that offers a Flymake backend for ansible-lint.
• inhibit-mouse.el: A package that disables mouse input in Emacs, offering a simpler and faster alternative to the disable-mouse package.
• enhanced-evil-paredit.el: An Emacs package that prevents parenthesis imbalance when using evil-mode with paredit. It intercepts evil-mode commands such as delete, change, and paste, blocking their execution if they would break the parenthetical structure.