
                  SQLite-based dictionary
                  -----------------------

The SQLite-based dictionary storage is meant to provide a simple
machine-readable interface to the Link Grammar dictionaries.

Traditionally, the Lik Grammar dictionaries are stored in text files
that are hand-edited. This is fine for manual maintenance of the
dictionary entries, but is a stumbling block when it is desired that
the dictionary be maintained in an automated fashion, e.g. by
language-learning tools.  The SQLite-based dictionary provides this
simpler interface.

The current interface remains a hybrid: some of the data will remain
in text files, until the system is more fully developed.

The SQLite format also offers another distinct advantage over the
text-bases system: an improved mechanism for handling non-integer
costs.  In an automated language learning system, the costs will
typically be log-liklihoods, and thus have fractional values; this
is in contrast to the current text system, which only offers an
integer-valued cost system.

