Description: KDing is a KDE port of Ding (http://www-user.tu-chemnitz.de/~fri/ding/), a dictionary lookup program. It is a simple program sitting in KDE's system tray that can translate the current clipboard content. The user can also enter a single word or a phrase for translation. KDing is intended to translate between German and English, but it can be used for every language for which a word list is available for Ding.Last changelog:
0.6
case-insensitive search and matching whole words only is now configurable in addition to egrep, KDing now supports agrep for searching approximate matching is supported when using agrep
0.5.2
the result page now uses the font and alternating background colors from the current color scheme added ability to cancel a running search
0.5.1
added options how to position the window and how to handle clicks on the system tray icon fixed sorting algorithm to match the sort order of Ding again the result display now honors KDE's global font settings in case KDing's window is already shown, it is now raised when it is activated by a keyboard shortcut
Just a minor thing but when will kding get such a nice big KDE4 tooltip? It's the only application in my panel/tray which has that old-style opaque one line tooltip.
thanks for this great tool.
It would be nice, if there would be an option, to watch the clipboard automatically, and translate new clipboard-content automatically, and then show it (reasonable count of results) in a tooltip right at mouse-position!
For longer texts, pressing a complicated shortcut and focussing and defocussing the kding window is too intrusive.
After updating to KDE 4.3.2 (Debian Sid) kding always crashes when I log out of KDE/exit the application. I tried with kding 0.5.1 and 0.6.
When I start kding from konsole I get the following after the crash:
KCrash: Application 'kding' crashing...
sock_file=/home/me/.kde/socket-mybox/kdeinit4__0
The graphical crash tool shows:
Application: KDing (kding), signal: Segmentation fault
[KCrash Handler]
#6 0xb6e5ce62 in KHTMLPart::~KHTMLPart() () from /usr/lib/libkhtml.so.5
#7 0xb6d14d4e in KParts::Part::slotWidgetDestroyed() () from /usr/lib/libkparts.so.4
#8 0xb6d14e6b in KParts::Part::qt_metacall(QMetaObject::Call, int, void**) () from /usr/lib/libkparts.so.4
#9 0xb6d14eca in KParts::ReadOnlyPart::qt_metacall(QMetaObject::Call, int, void**) () from /usr/lib/libkparts.so.4
#10 0xb6e653ba in KHTMLPart::qt_metacall(QMetaObject::Call, int, void**) () from /usr/lib/libkhtml.so.5
#11 0xb5ae2303 in QMetaObject::activate(QObject*, int, int, void**) () from /usr/lib/libQtCore.so.4
#12 0xb5ae2720 in QMetaObject::activate(QObject*, QMetaObject const*, int, int, void**) () from /usr/lib/libQtCore.so.4
#13 0xb5ae27ab in QObject::destroyed(QObject*) () from /usr/lib/libQtCore.so.4
#14 0xb5ae35b9 in QObject::~QObject() () from /usr/lib/libQtCore.so.4
#15 0xb60074bf in QWidget::~QWidget() () from /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4
#16 0xb5adc04f in QObjectPrivate::deleteChildren() () from /usr/lib/libQtCore.so.4
#17 0xb6006ceb in QWidget::~QWidget() () from /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4
#18 0x08053417 in _start ()
Any idea?
I've black window background and white default text color, but kding's result window uses black font color. So the results are only readable, if marked.
m0nk
Thanks for this great app as i used dict.tu-chemnitz.de a lot before using kding.
But there are some points to think about:
* Add the abbility to stop the current search (try searching without entering any text)
* Don't start a search when opening the window by double-clicking the systray icon. At least make it optional.
* Add the possibility to resize the window. I accidently started to translate while having an IRC text in my clipboard. This resized the window wider than my scren actually is, but i cannot resize it.
I second these wishes. And please enable kding to follow the KDE way of placing windows. The place where it always pops up is the place I want it the least.
I have 2 ding dictionaries on my harddisk, one for English-German and one for French-German. How do I use them with the 0.4 kding version?
Maybe you could also re-release the 0.3 version als "kding classic"?
Thanks for your suggestions. And sorry for the late answer, but I don't check the comments very often...
@Weaselweb:
A "Stop" button is a good idea, I will add it.
Clicking the systray icon is meant to translate the current clipboard contents. Doubleclicking isn't meant to do anything special, so i guess the icon just reacts to the single click. If you just want to bring up the window you can middle-click on the icon.
I know about the resizing issue, but I haven't found out how to prevent it without disabling resizing completely...
@Janet:
At the moment KDing only supports one dictionary. But I can add support for multiple dictionaries once I find the time...
If you're locale isn't UTF-8 you probably can't search for umlauts (for example "stören") as the dictionary file is UTF-8 encoded. I tried sending a patch but I couldn't find any email address =)
Change dingdictionary.cpp:60 to:
proc->addArgument(text.utf8());
I can't confirm that this will still work with UTF-8 as locale ^^
After being addicted to kding 0.3 I now gave version 0.4.1 a try. Alas every time I enter a word to search for it only gives me the hint (in the status bar) that it has found a matching entry - but doesn't show it.
I'm also missing a clear button for the search field and previous/next buttons. And a button or context menu to configure kding. Kding 0.3 did show me the translation when I was just selecting a word with the mouse, I'd love to configure version 0.4.x that way too.
I have tested KDing on Kubuntu and OpenSuse, and it correctly displays search results there.
As for the buttons: KDing 0.3 used ding to search for translations and display them, 0.4 does this itself. Compared to ding it's pretty basic, yes. There isn't really anything to configure, yet. I will probably add some more of ding's features to KDing, if I can find the time to do so...
Thanks for this tool.
From where does it get its data?
I often use http://dict.leo.org for de<->en translations.
I made a debian package:
http://www.ruinelli.ch/archiv
KDing uses the same dictionary as Ding, currently the one from the Ding 1.5 release. The dictionary is installed locally. That's what makes the package so huge ;-)
Hi !
Thanks for this app, it's very useful for writing english texts.
However, I have a request for a visual change. Its often not clear to me when a search runs and when it's finished. I know there's the KDE-sign in the upper right corner that moves while a search is in progress, but I often don't notice it. Could you add a more visible cue that indicates wether a search is running or not ?
It's probably because the KDE sign is in the upper right corner, while I mostly look at the left and lower area. Moving the KDE-sign closer to the left side could help, also enlarging it.
Ratings & Comments
30 Comments
Please can someone port this to Qt/Frameworks/Plasma 5?
Just a minor thing but when will kding get such a nice big KDE4 tooltip? It's the only application in my panel/tray which has that old-style opaque one line tooltip.
thanks for this great tool. It would be nice, if there would be an option, to watch the clipboard automatically, and translate new clipboard-content automatically, and then show it (reasonable count of results) in a tooltip right at mouse-position! For longer texts, pressing a complicated shortcut and focussing and defocussing the kding window is too intrusive.
After updating to KDE 4.3.2 (Debian Sid) kding always crashes when I log out of KDE/exit the application. I tried with kding 0.5.1 and 0.6. When I start kding from konsole I get the following after the crash: KCrash: Application 'kding' crashing... sock_file=/home/me/.kde/socket-mybox/kdeinit4__0 The graphical crash tool shows: Application: KDing (kding), signal: Segmentation fault [KCrash Handler] #6 0xb6e5ce62 in KHTMLPart::~KHTMLPart() () from /usr/lib/libkhtml.so.5 #7 0xb6d14d4e in KParts::Part::slotWidgetDestroyed() () from /usr/lib/libkparts.so.4 #8 0xb6d14e6b in KParts::Part::qt_metacall(QMetaObject::Call, int, void**) () from /usr/lib/libkparts.so.4 #9 0xb6d14eca in KParts::ReadOnlyPart::qt_metacall(QMetaObject::Call, int, void**) () from /usr/lib/libkparts.so.4 #10 0xb6e653ba in KHTMLPart::qt_metacall(QMetaObject::Call, int, void**) () from /usr/lib/libkhtml.so.5 #11 0xb5ae2303 in QMetaObject::activate(QObject*, int, int, void**) () from /usr/lib/libQtCore.so.4 #12 0xb5ae2720 in QMetaObject::activate(QObject*, QMetaObject const*, int, int, void**) () from /usr/lib/libQtCore.so.4 #13 0xb5ae27ab in QObject::destroyed(QObject*) () from /usr/lib/libQtCore.so.4 #14 0xb5ae35b9 in QObject::~QObject() () from /usr/lib/libQtCore.so.4 #15 0xb60074bf in QWidget::~QWidget() () from /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4 #16 0xb5adc04f in QObjectPrivate::deleteChildren() () from /usr/lib/libQtCore.so.4 #17 0xb6006ceb in QWidget::~QWidget() () from /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4 #18 0x08053417 in _start () Any idea?
Just FYI: With the update to KDE 4.3.4 kding doesn't crash anymore on exit.
PCLinuxOS package 0.6 located here: http://tinyurl.com/lzr3ga
I've black window background and white default text color, but kding's result window uses black font color. So the results are only readable, if marked. m0nk
Thanks for pointing this out, I will fix it with the next release. For now, you can set a fixed text color in the style sheet "kding.css".
Anyone working on a port of this?
I've done a KDE4 port and mailed my changes to rexi for integration, as he's doing his own KDE4 port.
I'd prefer if kding would look like this: http://img412.imageshack.us/my.php?image=kdingmockupxx0.png
Thanks for this great app as i used dict.tu-chemnitz.de a lot before using kding. But there are some points to think about: * Add the abbility to stop the current search (try searching without entering any text) * Don't start a search when opening the window by double-clicking the systray icon. At least make it optional. * Add the possibility to resize the window. I accidently started to translate while having an IRC text in my clipboard. This resized the window wider than my scren actually is, but i cannot resize it.
I second these wishes. And please enable kding to follow the KDE way of placing windows. The place where it always pops up is the place I want it the least. I have 2 ding dictionaries on my harddisk, one for English-German and one for French-German. How do I use them with the 0.4 kding version? Maybe you could also re-release the 0.3 version als "kding classic"?
Thanks for your suggestions. And sorry for the late answer, but I don't check the comments very often... @Weaselweb: A "Stop" button is a good idea, I will add it. Clicking the systray icon is meant to translate the current clipboard contents. Doubleclicking isn't meant to do anything special, so i guess the icon just reacts to the single click. If you just want to bring up the window you can middle-click on the icon. I know about the resizing issue, but I haven't found out how to prevent it without disabling resizing completely... @Janet: At the moment KDing only supports one dictionary. But I can add support for multiple dictionaries once I find the time...
If you're locale isn't UTF-8 you probably can't search for umlauts (for example "stören") as the dictionary file is UTF-8 encoded. I tried sending a patch but I couldn't find any email address =) Change dingdictionary.cpp:60 to: proc->addArgument(text.utf8()); I can't confirm that this will still work with UTF-8 as locale ^^
You can find my email address in the program's about box ;-) I'll see what I can do about the encoding issue...
http://packman.links2linux.de/package/kding
After being addicted to kding 0.3 I now gave version 0.4.1 a try. Alas every time I enter a word to search for it only gives me the hint (in the status bar) that it has found a matching entry - but doesn't show it. I'm also missing a clear button for the search field and previous/next buttons. And a button or context menu to configure kding. Kding 0.3 did show me the translation when I was just selecting a word with the mouse, I'd love to configure version 0.4.x that way too.
I have tested KDing on Kubuntu and OpenSuse, and it correctly displays search results there. As for the buttons: KDing 0.3 used ding to search for translations and display them, 0.4 does this itself. Compared to ding it's pretty basic, yes. There isn't really anything to configure, yet. I will probably add some more of ding's features to KDing, if I can find the time to do so...
http://packman.links2linux.de/package/kding/
Thanks for providing this :-)
Thanks for this tool. From where does it get its data? I often use http://dict.leo.org for de<->en translations. I made a debian package: http://www.ruinelli.ch/archiv
KDing uses the same dictionary as Ding, currently the one from the Ding 1.5 release. The dictionary is installed locally. That's what makes the package so huge ;-)
Hi ! Thanks for this app, it's very useful for writing english texts. However, I have a request for a visual change. Its often not clear to me when a search runs and when it's finished. I know there's the KDE-sign in the upper right corner that moves while a search is in progress, but I often don't notice it. Could you add a more visible cue that indicates wether a search is running or not ? It's probably because the KDE sign is in the upper right corner, while I mostly look at the left and lower area. Moving the KDE-sign closer to the left side could help, also enlarging it.
I am planning to add a statusbar to the main window to give more feedback, like the number of entries found or whether a search is currently running.