The ExDICTClient ActiveX control is a TCP transaction based query/response protocol that allows a client to access dictionary definitions from a set of natural language dictionary databases. The ExDICTClient ActiveX control uses the Dictionary Protocol, described in RFC 2229. The ExDICTClient is easy to use, and it does not require to much experience to use it. For many years, the Internet community has relied on the "webster" protocol for access to natural language definitions. The webster protocol supports access to a single dictionary and (optionally) to a single thesaurus. In recent years, the number of publicly available webster servers on the Internet has dramatically decreased. The DICT protocol is designed to provide access to multiple databases. Word definitions can be requested, the word index can be searched (using an easily extended set of algorithms), information about the server can be provided (e.g., which index search strategies are supported, or which databases are available), and information about a database can be provided (e.g., copyright, citation, or distribution information). Further, the DICT protocol has hooks that can be used to restrict access to some or all of the databases.

For instance, the following VB sample displays the definition for "control":

Private Sub Form_Load()
    Dim c As ExDICTClientLibCtl.Connection
    Set c = Client1.OpenConnection("dict.org")
    If Not (c Is Nothing) Then
        With c.CreateQuery("control", , c.Strategies("exact"))
            Dim r As ExDICTClientLibCtl.IResult
            For Each r In .Execute
                Debug.Print " Searching the '" & r.Word & "' in '" & r.Dictionary.Name & "' dictionary gets: "
                Dim d As ExDICTClientLibCtl.IDefinition
                Dim i As Long
                For i = 0 To r.Definitions.Count - 1
                    Set d = r.Definitions.Item(i)
                    Debug.Print d.Body
                Next
            Next
        End With
        c.Close
    End If
    Set c = Nothing
End Sub

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