Alpus

Alpus Dictionary Viewer

Alpus is a dictionary viewer.

Fast and fully offline operation
Compatibility with StarDict, DSL, XDXF, Dictd, and TSV/Plain dictionaries
Compatibility with ZIM files and MediaWiki database dumps
Typing friendly search with case, diacritics, and punctuation tolerance
Fuzzy search
Full-text search
In-page popup translator
History and bookmarks
Customization options
Works seamlessly on all your devices

Platform	Application	Version	Requirements	License	App Store
	Alpus-win-x64.zip	11.2	Windows 7 (64-bit) or later	Freeware	N/A
	Alpus-mac-x64.tgz	11.2	OS X Mavericks (10.9) or later	Freeware	N/A
	Alpus-linux-x64.tgz	11.2	amd64 or compatible	Freeware	N/A
	Alpus.apk^[1]	11.2.5	Android 4.4 or later	$6
	N/A	11.2	iOS/iPadOS 9.0 or later	$6
	N/A	11.2	macOS Catalina (10.15) or later	$6^[2]
Updates	Change Log
Checksums	MD5 or SHA-256

1. Free Edition available for up to 5 dictionaries.
2. Available as an iOS/iPadOS/macOS universal purchase.

No	Name	Languages	Package	Source
1.	WordNet®	English	WordNet.aaf	https://wordnet.princeton.edu
2.	Simple Wiktionary	English	SimpleWiktionary.aaf	https://simple.wiktionary.org
3.	FOLDOC	English	FOLDOC.aaf	https://foldoc.org

Disclaimer: The installable packages above are provided for the sole purpose of demonstrating the application's essential viewing functionality. The author of the application hereby rejects any and all liability for the contents of the packages.

Alpus is compatible with the following dictionary/file types:

StarDict dictionaries (*.idx)
DSL dictionaries (*.dsl)
XDXF dictionaries (*.xdxf)
Dictd dictionaries (*.index)
TSV/Plain dictionaries (*.txt, *.dic)
Hunspell dictionaries (*.aff)
ZIM files (*.zim)
MediaWiki dumps (*.xml.bz2)

Connect your mobile device to your computer.
Copy dictionary files to the app's documents/files folder on the device. See Android or iOS help for details.
(On Android, typical location of the app's documents folder is: Android/data/com.ngcomputing.fora.android/files)
(On macOS Catalina or later, use the "Show" button in the file picker to reveal the app's documents folder in Finder)
Select the dictionary index file as listed in the compatibility section above (or an archive of it) using the "Import Dictionary" option of the "Manage" menu.
Select multiple indexes/files, with each selection assumed and analyzed as one dictionary. (optional)
Select resource ZIP files (if any) to copy during importing. (optional)
Edit properties of the dictionary such as visible name using the "Edit Properties" option of the dictionary menu. (optional)
Create a full-text search index of the dictionary using the "Upgrade" option of the dictionary menu. (optional)
Create profiles to group and organize dictionaries. (optional)

Resource files of a dictionary can be put into multiple ZIP files with arbitrary sizes and file names. The resource ZIP files placed into the root folder of a dictionary (beside Main.props file) will be detected and indexed automatically.

Troubleshooting: If your device fails to play some audio files in resource ZIP files, you can use a batch converter utility like this app to convert the files to a canonical codec/format your device supports. Note that you must keep the filenames and extensions of audio files unchanged after the conversion since they are hardcoded in article texts.

Importing ZIM files are available only in desktop versions (i.e. "Freeware" versions) and requires on average ten times the size of the file of free hard drive space temporarily during the process. After importing the file using a desktop version on a computer, you can use it in any version of the app on any device.

The app supports searching full-text of all dictionaries for exact matches. The feature requires a one-time upgrading ("Upgrade All" option of the "Manage" menu) of a dictionary which can take a very long time to complete, since every single word anywhere on the dictionary is made searchable during the process.

Copying/moving dictionaries between devices is done using one of the two available methods:

"Export Dictionary" to an *.aaf file on the first device and then "Import Dictionary" that *.aaf file on the second
Copy/move whole "Alpus.Config" folder or individual dictionary folders using a file manager or built-in file operations

The configuration folder called "Alpus.Config" and individual dictionary folders under the "Dictionaries" folder in it are all portable, meaning you can safely copy/move them between any of your devices. After copying/moving, you may need to add dictionaries to the profile using the "Add to Profile" option of the "Manage" menu.
Folder names under the ../Alpus.Config/Dictionaries folder (usually garbled dictionary names) are editable when the app is not running.
On Android and iOS mobile devices, the Alpus.Config folder is deleted automatically when you uninstall the app (intentionally or unintentionally). It's highly recommended to make backups of this folder or individual dictionary folders to avoid the hassle of re-indexing all dictionaries.

The app has some built-in stemming support for some languages (namely; English, List-1, and List-2).
For search speed considerations, the app discards deeper stems of a query word when there are too many stems (root words) generated by built-in stemmers.

There are five kinds of searches you can perform on dictionaries.

Regular search: Shows results exactly matching the query.
Extended matching search: Shows results matching the query with case, diacritics, and punctuations ignored. Suggestions include in-phrase and phonetic matches.
Full-text search: Shows list of articles containing exact matches of the query. The scope of search is not limited to headwords and includes all text in all articles (definitions, synonyms, examples, etc).
Fuzzy search: Shows list of articles most similar to the query. The search works like a spell checker for words you're not sure how it's written/spelled.
Wildcard search: Shows list of articles that match the criteria set with a wildcard query.

Updating the app consists of keeping the portable "Alpus.Config" folder and replacing the remaining files and folders.

Uninstalling the app consists of removing the Alpus bundle. Some files/folders may need to be removed manually which is described here.

Q: I bought an offline dictionary, can I use it in Alpus?
A: Probably, no. Most standalone dictionaries have it's own proprietary data format incompatible with general-purpose dictionaries. You need dictionary data in one of the supported formats.

Q: Suggestions are slow when a lot of dictionaries are installed.
A: Unlike traditional search auto-completion, the app performs a complete search and matching of the query (e.g. occurrences in multi-word phrases) on all dictionaries in profile when suggestions are activated. Grouping dictionaries into smaller sets based on usage context using profiles may be helpful.

Q: I can't find the dictionary I need or the dictionary isn't displayed properly when searching.
A: Importing the dictionary using the latest version of the app or using alternate formats may be helpful.

Q: When I modify/replace the Alpus.Config folder manually, my profiles are lost.
A: This is the expected behavior since profiles are stored as app settings (rather than disk files) on mobile devices for the sake of stability.

Q: Why is Alpus cheaper on Android than iOS/iPadOS?
A: Cost of both developing for the platform and maintaining an app in the marketplace is different on the two platforms and hence we reflect the difference in pricing the app.

While supporting similar dictionary formats, Alpus is not data-compatible with Fora Dictionary.

Slow importing: The app converts every dictionary to it's own cross-platform format and sometimes this conversion takes a very long time. Some big dictionaries require this conversion to be done on a powerful desktop computer, and some bigger dictionaries take a long time even on a powerful desktop computer.
Limited on-device upgrades: The optimization of full-text search upgrade is not available on mobile devices due to cross-platform memory management implementation and greedy nature of the operation. This setup-only limitation doesn't affect any usage features on any device.
No embedded player: The app doesn't play resource files itself, but uses the device's default media player. The default player determines which kinds of files can be played.

Integration with other apps or the operating system is briefly described here.

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