README

You can download a pre-built dictionary here: http://public.muir.io/查友.zip

Chayou (查友), meaning something like "search buddy", is a Chinese Mac OS X Dictionary.app plugin generated using CC-CEDICT. After installing the plugin, there will be a new "查友" tab in the Dictionary application you can use to look up Chinese words. You can use a double three-fingered tap or ctrl-command-d (default key bindings) in many other system programs to perform automatic lookups without having to open the Dictionary app.

This is made/tested for 10.7 (Lion) but it might also work on Snow Leopard (haven't tried).

The main piece of this project is the "build_dict.pl" script which massages the CC-CEDICT file into an XML dictionary file ready to be built into a dictionary bundle.

To build the dictionary bundle, follow these steps:
 1. Install Apple developer tools so you have "make" and the dictionary build tools (install XCode from App Store)
 2. Download (and uncompress) CC-CEDICT someplace and update the Makefile to point to it
 3. Run "make" to build the dictionary bundle
 4. Run "make install" to install the dictonary plugin on your local system
 5. Run Dictionary.app to test out the dictionary (note that you sometimes have to twiddle the dictionary preferences under "Preferences" in the Dictionary.app to get it to refresh)