Help needed

[miteshpandey]

I have an application which is a kind of dictionary.

The application is an exe and I don't have the source for it.

However I would like to import the words in this application to my application's database.

When I execute this dictionary application it displays a window which has a listbox which in turn displays the words.

Is it possible for me to acquire the words displayed in the listbox by any means.

Any help will be appreciated.

Mitesh

[kirants]

get the list handle, hook into that and you should know it.

[ovidiucucu]

Originally posted by miteshpandey
I have an application which is a kind of dictionary.

The application is an exe and I don't have the source for it.

However I would like to import the words in this application to my application's database.

When I execute this dictionary application it displays a window which has a listbox which in turn displays the words.

Is it possible for me to acquire the words displayed in the listbox by any means.

Any help will be appreciated.

Mitesh

Ask dictionary manufacturers.

[John E]

Originally posted by ovidiucucu
Ask dictionary manufacturers.

I know it was meant in jest Mitesh but Ovidiu is giving you good advice there. You can't just "acquire" somebody else's copyright materail without their permission.

If you ask their permission they might agree and let you use their dictionary. Otherwise, you'll just have to put in the effort and compile one yourself - just like they had to do.

[wayside]

If the "dictionary" is just a list of words, the words themselves are not copyright-protected.

The application that the words are in is copyrighted (copywritten?)

[miteshpandey]

It is not exactly a dictionary but a kind of utility program which gives u only the list or words according to the query provided by the user in the edit box.

Please help any more information will be appreciated much.

[John E]

Originally posted by wayside
If the "dictionary" is just a list of words, the words themselves are not copyright-protected.

Words themselves cannot be copyrighted (although they can be trade marked) but a specific arrangement of words is automatically copyrighted. If Mitesh's app uses an arrangement of words derived from somebody else's work (and particularly if he used them in roughly the same order) he would be breaching copyright.

One possible saving grace is that he doesn't intend using the originator's definitions but he's still on dicey ground. If there are any spelling mistakes in the dictionary and he copies them into his own work, he'll be leaving himself wide open to get sued.

There's a well known techinque used by map makers where they put deliberate errors into their work. In theory, two maps of the same area should look identical and this used to cause all kinds of problems for map makers trying to prove plagiarism. The answer was to deliberately put non-existent streams and footpaths into their maps so they could tell if their work was being copied. In fact I think that was one of Webster's original aims when he compiled his first dictionary - hence why some people now use 'color' and others, 'colour'.

[marsh_pottaye]

Well, let's be serious!
There are many of questions in this forum indirectly asking "How can we hack/crack/hook/f*** 3rd party application?". Many of them found the solutions.

If that app. simply has Windows edit and list comon controls and presuming you have a list of words to be translated, try this:

- get a handle to the edit box using spy++;
- get a handle to the list box using spy++;
  (also you can get them programatically 
                                -> search this forum to find how)

loop for each word in your list of words 
   - send WM_SETTEXT  to put the word in edit;
   - dempending on how it's implemented that dictionary 
                             you must simulate an user action
     (click a buton, press Enter -> search this forum to find how) 
   - send LB_GETCOUNT to retrieve the number of the list items;
   loop for each list item to retrieve the item text:
      - send LB_GETTEXTLEN to retrieve the required buffer length;
      - send LB_GETTEXT and you have the item text;
      - insert into database.
   end loop for list items.
end loop for word list.

As you can observe this does not require too much base knowledge.
Although, it can work or can not. This depend on how well the manufacturer protected the application.

[kirants]

Just curious. Does this work across process ( as is required by the poster ). I don't think LB_GETTEXT message will.