The Digital Pali Reader (DPR) is a tool, that plays the role of a hard-copy language reader, facilitating study of the Pali language at an advanced level.
Rather than offering a translation for the text being read, a reader usually includes a dictionary with all of the difficult words found in the reader.
The DPR differs from an ordinary reader in several respects:
· The DPR allows for instant lookup of words, simply by clicking on a word in the passage being read. This avoids time spent looking for the word in a hard-copy dictionary or in another place on one's computer.
· The DPR has a built in search function similar to that of the CSCD. Whereas the CSCD allows for only global searches or searches of entire pitakas, the DPR provides Nikaya and Book searches as well.
· The dictionary files in the DPR were not designed specifically for the purpose at hand, and of course word-to-definition matches are sometimes incorrect due to imperfect analysis.
· The DPR includes several dictionaries: Pali-English, English-Pali, Pali proper names, and Concise Pali Dictionary. These dictionaries can be directly accessed from the control panel.
The Concise Pali Dictionary is based on the Concise Pali-English Dictionary by Buddhadatta, but has been translated (via google) into five additional languages: French, German, Spanish, and Thai. These dictionaries are available from sourceforge:
· Pali-French Dictionary
· Pali-German Dictionary
· Pali-Spanish Dictionary
· Pali-Thai Dictionary
Just unpack the archive and place the enclosed file into the /DPR/DPR/js directory, then restart the reader. You will notice a dropdown menu has appeared on the bottom right of the screen, allowing you to choose the language for the CPD.
This will change the language for both the concise definitions of individual words in the passage being read, and for the CPD dictionary in the dictionary search (see below). Note that the translations in these dictionaries are far from perfect.
Here are some key features of "Digital Pali Reader":
The DPR has several useful auxiliary utilities, including:
· Bookmark and quote clipboard for keeping important passages
· A Pali conversion utility that converts to and from Velthius, Unicode, CSCD, and Thai scripts
· Extensible transliteration of Pali script into other scripts; Thai is included, others are in the works
· Grammar texts and tools for brushing up on Pali grammar, as well as a Pali language quiz to test your vocabulary
· Random English quotes from Buddhavacana, by S. Dhammika
Requirements:
· Google Chrome
· Firefox
What's New in This Release: [ read full changelog ]
· This integrated version will allow for easier installation and automatic updates as they become available.
Find us on Google+
