It's gone. The Vietnamese dictionary that I've been using for years and years and years (well, at least since 2003), and has served as my homepage since the beginning, has finally gone the way of all the earth. Returned to the dust. Paid the final visit to grandma and grandpa. Gone back to the happy hunting grounds. :( I'm sad.The dictionary of which I speak is the English - French - Germany [sp] - Vietnamese Dictionary once available at dict.vietfun.com. The genius Hồ Ngọc Đức created the dictionary software and the database of terms. He is truly dedicated to extending the Vietnamese language to the world via the Internet, and leads the ongoing effort toward developing VietWordNet, a "large-scale online lexical-semantic Vietnamese language net" (like the English WordNet developed at Princeton). His contribution to the Vietnamese language on the world wide web is perhaps the most influential, considering that apparently all current Vietnamese online dictionaries use large portions of his database, including the Vietnamese Wiktionary.
It thus saddens me to see the most intuitive and useful tool in accessing the above resource vanish from the Web. Why was this the best dictionary? Absolutely no ads. Simultaneous language lookup (a drop-down box is a terrible way to choose language!). After lookup, auto-focus to the input box and auto-selection of text (allowing user to enter the next term without having to navigate to the input and/or select the text). Right-click on a word in the definition to lookup that word. These features provided a seamless, speedy workflow that minimized the amount of lost time with keyboard-to-mouse-and-back hand movement. I remember countless times looking up a list of mixed words (both English and Vietnamese) without touching the mouse once. This functionality was in place before Web 2.0 and mobile interface concepts had emerged mainstream - truly a web app beyond its time.
All of the current online Vietnamese databases have some of these features, but most revert to a language drop-down, severely limited efficiency and doubling time when translating. I find the drop-down an eyesore that may conserve screen real estate but lacks functionality (in this application). In a subsequent post, I will list the dictionary resources that I will now have to use since my trusted site is gone under, grimacing each time I have to click for a language and see a gaudy ad.
I had noticed that the dictionary at dict.vietfun.com was quite fickle over the last several months, so I was relieved to see a message last week stating that major improvements were being implemented. Alas, I access the site this morning only to find the hated drop-down language selection! Mừng hụt! And what's worse? A gaping text box spanning half my screen, reserved for translation. Yuck. Lookup and translation should never be on the same page. I frantically clicked the About tab to see if Hồ Ngọc Đức is somehow involved with this remake (hoping that he wasn't). A 404 error - the page doesn't even exist. The site is due for completion on June 25, but judging by its current state, it will never be half the site it used to be. The beautiful simplicity has been compromised for Bleh and a Translation Box. And a drop-down.
This is a sad day. I don't know if I can function without this dictionary. Perhaps if someone were to re-create it... hmm, now that's an idea.
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