This is an Android dictionary App. You can visit Google Play to install it, or if your Android phone can't use Google Play, then you can download it from Sina Vdisk (need sign up). Since CrossDict 2.0, the software is distributed separately with the dictionary data, which is another APK which can also be installed from Google Play, or downloaded from Sina Vdisk.
It is free software.
The dictionary data that comes with this App is extracted from GCIDE, which is a GNU project and therefor also free. I have fixed some bugs in the dico project and used it to extract the dictionary data, and here it is my changes.
But you can switch the dictionary data if you have access to another one. For example, the American Heritage Dictionary's data can be used, if it can be changed to CrossDict's data format.
I have made some features that I think every dictionary should have, for e.g.,
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Search the definitions
For instance, you can search which words has used the word "hello" in their definition. This is why it is named CrossDict.
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Search with regexp
For instance, you can search with "let$" and found out all those small things which ends with "let". This is very useful as it allow you check words with similar postfix/prefix/root.
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Context menu
While in the dictionary, you can long press on a word, and a pop-up menu will show, which allows you to check the various things about this word. Thank this project on github for this feature, and if you haven't noticed, the CrossDict project is a fork of that one.
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Support word capture/history better
Using the social sharing feature that is built in Android, another App (such as fbreader) can "share" a word with CrossDict, which is of course meant to look that word up or capture it for later study.
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Separate the dictionary data with the App
Or else the App will be too large and difficult to install/upgrade.
The above are implemented in CrossDict 2.0 version.
I am working on these features:
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Support more devices
Currently only Android 4.0 or above is supported.
I used Emacs and no Eclipse for developping this App. In fact, it is my first big Java project. I haven't wrote any big Java projects before because I am a huge Emacs fan and can't bear the thought of switching to Eclipse for Java/Android development.
Then I tried emacs-eclim. It was great, but can't fill my appetite because I wanted to put the whole Android source into a single project – this brought the backend Eclipse to crawling.
But anyway, emacs-eclim has inspired me to work on my own Emacs/Java solution based on gtags and exuberant ctags.
It's not finished and not ready for public use yet, but you can take a look of it at here (video link included).
If you used and liked CrossDict and want to support my work on it, please click here to donate.