On Wed, Mar 14, 2007 15:52:55 PM -0600, Florencio Marchelli
([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
> a) "The Wikipedia Connection"
> Just Alt-Click (or any combination you prefer) over a word or
> marked text and OO will open Wikipedia with the definition (if any)
> for the selection.
> All of us have found words with unknown definition and, this
> feature can join the OO and Wikipedia initiatives to bring the OO
> users the best of Knowledge and the Tools to process it.
With all due respect, this would be a good thing only if Wikipedia
*were* or could ever become (both conceptually and in practice) the
"best of Knowledge". Otherwise, it would just perpetuate and reinforce
the myth that it is the "best of Knowledge".
Besides, making even easier and faster for lazy students to do
homework by just copying without thinking randomly edited material
from the Internet doesn't enthusiasm me.
This said, the right place where to find a *word definition* is a
dictionary, not an encyclopedia (regardless of its quality). Do you
know what "surreptitious" (just the first uncommon word that popped up
in my head) means? If not, you'll find it on the Merriam-Webster
online, but not (as an independent definition, that is) on Wikipedia.
Searching "surreptitious" on M-W immediately lets you know what it
is. Searching it on Wikipedia returns a random bunch of articles which
use that word, thus requiring that you already know what it means. As
it should be, by definition:
(from M-W online)
encyclopedia: a work that contains information on all branches of
knowledge or treats comprehensively a particular branch of knowledge
usually in articles arranged alphabetically often by subject
dictionary: 1 : a reference source in print or electronic form
containing words usually alphabetically arranged along with
information about their forms, pronunciations, functions, etymologies,
meanings, and syntactical and idiomatic uses
Of course, if one didn't search for single words, but complex concepts
it could be different, but here the fundamental problem of the real
quality or meaning of Wikipedia comes back.
Note that a M-W plugin for OO.o had already been requested last year:
www.openoffice.org/servlets/BrowseList?list=users&by=thread&from=11682
without (so far) any result. For such a plugin, yes, you'd also have
my vote and recommendation to use it.
Ciao,
Marco
--
The right way to make everybody love Free Standards and Free Software:
http://digifreedom.net/node/73
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