New Oxford due in September

[mikelove]

Speaking of useful Oxford dictionaries, have you ever looked into licensing the Oxford Advanced Learner's English-Chinese Dictionary? I sometimes resort to the printed edition of this dictionary when trying to translate something into Chinese, and when all else fails. It has MANY examples of English phrases and their Chinese rough equivalents. Very useful. It would be a very cool addition to Pleco for which I for one would be willing to pay quite a bit.

We have indeed looked into it and it certainly might be a possibility... more on that in 2012, hopefully.

 

[hleperlier]

She does mention a Palm Pilot and iPhone version, so it seems like they are developing one themselves.

Actually I took that as more of an offhand "I'm sure someone's eventually going to do it" comment - if Oxford's been reading the sales reports we've sent them, they have ample evidence for why developing a brand new Chinese dictionary on Palm OS at this point would be a terrible idea And if I really wanted to flatter myself I could even look at the Palm part of that as a Pleco reference specifically, since there's not much reason why anyone involved in Chinese dictionaries at Oxford would be thinking about Palm OS nowadays other than for our software. (no idea if Ms. Kleeman uses Pleco, but I know for a fact that several other members of the editorial staff for the new Oxford do / did)

If it doesn't work in Pleco I probably won't bother buying the dictionary. For me it's the integration with other features that matters.

Thanks!

If they're thinking about Palm OS and not even mentioning the iPhone or Android, they must have been cooped up in their office working day and night on the new dictionary since the year 2000. :mrgreen:

 

[mnanon]

Has there been a deal yet concluded?

 

[mikelove]

Has there been a deal yet concluded?

Nope, but that doesn't mean there won't be.

 

[mnanon]

Any progress since April? This dictionary would be a major conquest for Pleco- not that you have already done an amazing work. There is no application which comes close to Pleco!

 

[mikelove]

Any progress since April? This dictionary would be a major conquest for Pleco- not that you have already done an amazing work. There is no application which comes close to Pleco!

Thanks!

Some progress, but there won't be anything interesting to say unless and until a license is actually signed.

However, we have had a recent uptick in our relations with FLTRP, who make the C-E dictionary that Oxford licensed / modified to make the C-E half of their dictionary, so if we aren't able to license the whole thing we might be able to offer something very similar that way.