gjdict

is a package that combines the free Japanese Multi-lingual Electronic Dictionary (JMdict) database file with a graphical user interface. JMdict is copyright James William BREEN and The Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group at Monash University while the graphical interface is provided by Daniel Albuschat, the owner of this page. Florian Bluemel also participated in this project, since he created jmdict_import, a program to pump the JMdict file into a sqlite database. He also wrote a console frontend for jmdict which can be found here.

Readme

      For gjdict to work properly, you first need to install gjdict.exe.
      Do this by unpacking the .exe from this archive to any directory and
      execute the steps given in INSTALL_win32.txt.
      If you're on Linux or *NIX, the best way to install gjdict is
      to fetch the source from http://gjdict.sf.net and compile it
      yourself. There are no binary packages for UNIX(-like) systems as of now.

      After you've installed gjdict and the application starts correctly,
      the jpdict sqlite database (a sqlite version of the JMdict database file) needs
      to be in place.

      Creation of the jpdict file

      You can either download the jmdict_import source from
      http://mandrill.fuxx0r.net/jmdict.php and compile it yourself (requires
      expat and sqlite development packages) and compile it with mingw or
      any other compiler you have at hand, or you can download a precompiled
      version for windows from from http://gjdict.sf.net.
      You need to call jmdict_import from a console, with the JMdict file
      from http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/j_jmdict.html in the same
      directory, and it will create a file named "dictionary".
      For windows, rename this to "jpdict" and put it in the same directory
      as the gjdict.exe. For Linux, move it to ~/.jpdict.

      There's also a prepared sqlite database file at the gjdict homepage.

      When the jpdict (or .jpdict) file is in place, you can start gjdict,
      type in any english word you're looking for, and get the results by
      pressing "Search". 

      That's it, have fun learning Japanese.

Screenshots


gjdict on linux	gjdict on windows

Downloads

There are a few packages you can download:

gjdict-exe	Package that only includes the gjdict.exe. You still need to download the sqlite JMdict database and install the gtk+ and gtkmm runtimes.
gjdict-bin-win32	This package includes gjdict.exe and the jpdict sqlite database. You still need to install the gtk+ and gtkmm runtimes.
gjdict-source	This is the source code for gjdict. It compiles with gcc/mingw on Linux and Win32. It may compile on many other platforms where gtkmm and sqlite are available. It uses the SCons build system, but I'll provide a Makefile soon.

Resources

Japanese Multi-lingual Electronic Dictionary (JMdict)
jmdict and jmdict_import (console versions, multiplatform, source only)
gtkmm homepage
gtkmm win32 ports
The SCons build system

Contact

You can contact the author, Daniel Albuschat, via email at "daniel at viming dot de".
Also visit the souceforge.net project page at http://sf.net/projects/gjdict