Show HN: Wordsmith - jquery plugin that adds on-demand word definitions | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Wordsmith - jquery plugin that adds on-demand word definitions

getwordsmith.co

23 pointsrichhollis16 comments

Cool plugin. Would be great if the definition would load in the bubble instead of an entirely new window.

I agree, they should at least enable this plugin on word definition pages. If I want to check out another word I found in the definition I need to switch to a different interface and lose context (I also hate having to do that with my Kindle).

You don't need to switch interfaces to look up words on the Kindle. On my Kindle Keyboard, I can take the caret to just before a word for a quick definition popover. Press return from there to go to the detailed entry on the bundled Oxford Dictionary of English.

In Kindle Touch you touch and hold a word for a second or two but that's beside my point. I want the ability to tap a word or move the caret in the quick definition popover to look up another word within the same interface without having to switch to the full dictionary.

That's really nice, but double-clicking a word is not obvious. Would it be possible to show the translate icon after you hover the cursor over a word for a few seconds?

IMHO selecting text (it doesn't detect double-clicking, it is a way to select a word implemented by the browser) is the intuitive way to do this. It gives me instant feedback and doesn't distract me when I didn't mean to hover a word while reading.

>var appName = "wordsmith";

>$.fn[appName] = function(options) {...}

I haven't read many jQuery plugins, is setting off the function name in a variable a common thing to do?

Do you know how to read code? Because it appears that you're attempting to prove you can, but at the same time, you seem willfully ignorant as to the uses of that variable.

Search in the code for that identifier and you might learn why he created it.

Selecting multiple words returns Internal Server Error.

Funny that is does not know what Javascript means ;)

For the rest, cool plugin and i cannot agree more with the tips by grk and imjared.

It also doesn't know what "definitions" means. Their dictionary seems a bit incomplete.

Hey everyone, this is one of the makers - great feedback so far just wanted to say thank you.

Hey everyone (& jess). Thanks from me too for all your feedback. It's been great to read.

Pretty cool, but I don't like the massive branding everywhere in the definition window.

very cool plugin. I'd like the definition to show up in a tooltip or something by default though. opening up a new window is a bit annoying.

Very cool and I second that. Opening a new window loses the flow for me. A pop-up would be much better.

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