Re: How to make Emacs popular again.

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>
> Cc: philipk@posteo.net, eduardoochs@gmail.com, spacibba@aol.com,
>       emacs-devel@gnu.org, dgutov@yandex.ru, jamtlu@gmail.com
> Date: Thu, 01 Oct 2020 23:52:45 -0400
> 
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> 
>   >   It's not like the server calculates something that could
>   > be subverted by a server we don't control.  What harm could be done by
>   > looking up a word?
> 
> The server could report that you did so.

That is something that should be known about a server, isn't it?  The
default dict.org server runs dictd, the server built from the
dict-1.12 package.  dict is a GPLed package and its source can be
scrutinized to see if anything like that is there.  The information
about the server is reachable from the dict.org home page,
www.dict.org.

>                         And how is it different from the command we have
>   > that queries an Internet search engine (M-s M-w)?
> 
> One difference is that you can, and should, have a local dictionary
> and you can't have a local search engine.

DICT servers usually use more than one dictionary.  The dict.org one
uses 12 of them (all free or PD, AFAIU), and that's even before you
count the dictionaries that translate between 2 languages.  It would
be unusual for a seasoned Emacs user to have all of them installed
locally.

> Another difference is that you are likely to want to check definitions
> very often, and searching less often.

I think it's the other way around.  I very rarely need to search for a
single word, and when I do, I can use "M-s M-w" to do that, because
search engines consult these dictionaries as well.