Say What?

[jackofallgeeks]

So here's an odd little tidbit: Microsoft is apparently pushing a 56meg update to
Vista in order to add five words the the English and German
dictionaries. What I want to know is why it takes 5.6 megs (5.6 for five
words in two dictionaries is 56) to add a word to a digital dictionary
(standard ascii text is measured in BITS per character). What I'd really
like to know is why a patch that adds a handful of words to the dictionary
(used mostly for spell-check) is marked as "Important." But what I'd REALLY
like to know is why in the world updating a dictionary should require
me to restart my computer!?

Comments

[otakulk.livejournal.com]

They are sending the entire new dictionary file, not just the new words. The dictionary file is a hashed binary file, so adding new words isn't as simple as just inserting text. Though, its not really difficult either (hash in, add, hash out). I am betting the windows update service isn't as advanced as we'd like to think, and it really just over-writes files and registry keys rather than processing anything, so an update that would add words to a dictionary would require an update to windows update that would allow it to process updates :P.

On another note, I really like how its not sure if you will need to update your computer. Like it doesn't know? Musta been a legal issue lol.

Why the dictionary is a 56 meg binary hashed file is stupid as well, however. For comparison, I downloaded the ascii version of the TWL word list (used in scrabble). Its 1.7M. Granted there are no definitions (as implied by the term dictionary), but I don't think windows has that either.

[jackofallgeeks.livejournal.com]

Nah, it's not a 'real' dictionary; it looks like it's just the spellcheck dictionary. It adds 5 words, among them "Obama," apparently.