First Impressions
Posted: 2003-08-22 16:42:52
I must admit that I find Nisus Thesaurus a little confusing at first. Maybe I'll get used to it.
So the first think I type into it is neck. I get two senses of "neck" under similar:
As in "external body part"
cervix ->
As in "pet" (v.)
make out ->
I take it the "As in" is a super-ordinate category and "cervix" and "make out" are supposed to be synonyms? But why are there super-ordinates in the right column when I have "Similar" rather than "more general" selected in the left column". This doesn't really convey the hierarchy suggested by the "More General" and "More Specific" labels. It seems like the natural thing to do would be to have columns to the left get more general and columns to the right get more specific. That leaves out the parts hierarchy, I suppose but you could have a pop-up button that allowed you to switch between the ontological hierarchy and the part-whole hierarchy. Just an idea.
Then I click on "make out" and I get a definition. But the definition is "as in 'recognize.'" There is nothing there about making out as in necking.
So then I type in "bird". Under similar there are all sorts of things in the right column but, I guess their are no "as in vertebrate" synonyms for bird so "as in vertebrate doesn't even show up. That seems a little strange.
Anyway, this is interesting. I don't know if it is more or less useful than a traditional thesaurus, such as that included in NW 6.5.
I don't know what your plans are. In some ways it would be nice to have a bunch of services that could be used in other applications rather than features built into NW that only work with NW. On the other hand, it will get to be a bit annoying if one has to start shelling out $20 per feature that was included in 6.5.
So the first think I type into it is neck. I get two senses of "neck" under similar:
As in "external body part"
cervix ->
As in "pet" (v.)
make out ->
I take it the "As in" is a super-ordinate category and "cervix" and "make out" are supposed to be synonyms? But why are there super-ordinates in the right column when I have "Similar" rather than "more general" selected in the left column". This doesn't really convey the hierarchy suggested by the "More General" and "More Specific" labels. It seems like the natural thing to do would be to have columns to the left get more general and columns to the right get more specific. That leaves out the parts hierarchy, I suppose but you could have a pop-up button that allowed you to switch between the ontological hierarchy and the part-whole hierarchy. Just an idea.
Then I click on "make out" and I get a definition. But the definition is "as in 'recognize.'" There is nothing there about making out as in necking.
So then I type in "bird". Under similar there are all sorts of things in the right column but, I guess their are no "as in vertebrate" synonyms for bird so "as in vertebrate doesn't even show up. That seems a little strange.
Anyway, this is interesting. I don't know if it is more or less useful than a traditional thesaurus, such as that included in NW 6.5.
I don't know what your plans are. In some ways it would be nice to have a bunch of services that could be used in other applications rather than features built into NW that only work with NW. On the other hand, it will get to be a bit annoying if one has to start shelling out $20 per feature that was included in 6.5.