Implementing an older Mecab library into a modern iOS app

Question

I'm trying to use Mecab within a new app that I've been working on but I'm having trouble getting the library to work correctly. Originally, I tried the following repository which is supposed to be compatible with iOS 6:

https://github.com/gumob/mecab

I tried building a universal binary and then adding the library and header files as well as simply adding the entire project as a dependency but in both cases I ended up with a lot of errors. So, I gave up on that one and went back to the original that it was forked from:

https://github.com/FLCLjp/iPhone-libmecab

I believe that one was originally made for iOS 3. However, if you make the following changes to the sample app that's included in that repository, the app will build and run on iOS 9.3 simulators and devices:

Change line 26 in the app delegate from

[self.window addSubview:viewController.view];

to

[self.window setRootViewController:viewController];

Change the Build Settings - Architectures option to Standard architectures (armv7 arm64) for both the LibMecabSample target and the mecab library target found in the mecab.xcodeproj in the Other Sources folder.

Since this version seems to work just fine, I tried implementing the mecab.xcodeproj found in that repository into my app. I basically tried to just recreate the way it's implemented in the LibMecabSample app and everything seems to be the same. I even differenced the xcode project files in a text program to make sure I didn't have any differences in the build settings. There were a couple of differences (ARC, Enable Modules, and a user defined PREBINDING - No setting) but changing those doesn't seem to affect things and I'm still getting the following errors when I try to build:

CompileC /Users/username/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/myApp-alstnncsvqtenwfmppcsobrovoao/Build/Intermediates/myApp.build/Debug-iphoneos/myApp.build/Objects-normal/armv7/Mecab.o myApp/Mecab.m normal armv7 objective-c com.apple.compilers.llvm.clang.1_0.compiler
    cd /Users/username/Developer/myApp
    export LANG=en_US.US-ASCII
    export PATH="/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/Developer/usr/bin:/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin"
    /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Toolchains/XcodeDefault.xctoolchain/usr/bin/clang -x objective-c -arch armv7 -fmessage-length=0 -fdiagnostics-show-note-include-stack -fmacro-backtrace-limit=0 -std=c99 -fobjc-arc -fmodules -fmodules-cache-path=/Users/username/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/ModuleCache -fmodules-prune-interval=86400 -fmodules-prune-after=345600 -fbuild-session-file=/Users/username/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/ModuleCache/Session.modulevalidation -fmodules-validate-once-per-build-session -Wnon-modular-include-in-framework-module -Werror=non-modular-include-in-framework-module -Wno-trigraphs -fpascal-strings -O0 -fno-common -Wno-missing-field-initializers -Wno-missing-prototypes -Werror=return-type -Wunreachable-code -Wno-implicit-atomic-properties -Werror=deprecated-objc-isa-usage -Werror=objc-root-class -Wno-arc-repeated-use-of-weak -Wduplicate-method-match -Wno-missing-braces -Wparentheses -Wswitch -Wunused-function -Wno-unused-label -Wno-unused-parameter -Wunused-variable -Wunused-value -Wempty-body -Wconditional-uninitialized -Wno-unknown-pragmas -Wno-shadow -Wno-four-char-constants -Wno-conversion -Wconstant-conversion -Wint-conversion -Wbool-conversion -Wenum-conversion -Wshorten-64-to-32 -Wpointer-sign -Wno-newline-eof -Wno-selector -Wno-strict-selector-match -Wundeclared-selector -Wno-deprecated-implementations -DDEBUG=1 -DOBJC_OLD_DISPATCH_PROTOTYPES=0 -isysroot /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/Developer/SDKs/iPhoneOS9.3.sdk -fstrict-aliasing -Wprotocol -Wdeprecated-declarations -miphoneos-version-min=9.3 -g -Wno-sign-conversion -fembed-bitcode-marker -I/Users/username/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/myApp-alstnncsvqtenwfmppcsobrovoao/Build/Intermediates/myApp.build/Debug-iphoneos/myApp.build/myApp.hmap -I/Users/username/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/myApp-alstnncsvqtenwfmppcsobrovoao/Build/Products/Debug-iphoneos/include -I/Users/username/Developer/myApp/myApp -I/Users/username/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/myApp-alstnncsvqtenwfmppcsobrovoao/Build/Intermediates/myApp.build/Debug-iphoneos/myApp.build/DerivedSources/armv7 -I/Users/username/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/myApp-alstnncsvqtenwfmppcsobrovoao/Build/Intermediates/myApp.build/Debug-iphoneos/myApp.build/DerivedSources -F/Users/username/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/myApp-alstnncsvqtenwfmppcsobrovoao/Build/Products/Debug-iphoneos -fno-objc-arc -include /Users/username/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/myApp-alstnncsvqtenwfmppcsobrovoao/Build/Intermediates/PrecompiledHeaders/LibMecabSample_Prefix-djuzfnofhgzpgqhajbqeodymirzc/LibMecabSample_Prefix.pch -MMD -MT dependencies -MF /Users/username/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/myApp-alstnncsvqtenwfmppcsobrovoao/Build/Intermediates/myApp.build/Debug-iphoneos/myApp.build/Objects-normal/armv7/Mecab.d --serialize-diagnostics /Users/username/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/myApp-alstnncsvqtenwfmppcsobrovoao/Build/Intermediates/myApp.build/Debug-iphoneos/myApp.build/Objects-normal/armv7/Mecab.dia -c /Users/username/Developer/myApp/myApp/Mecab.m -o /Users/username/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/myApp-alstnncsvqtenwfmppcsobrovoao/Build/Intermediates/myApp.build/Debug-iphoneos/myApp.build/Objects-normal/armv7/Mecab.o

In file included from /Users/username/Developer/myApp/myApp/Mecab.m:12:
/Users/username/Developer/myApp/myApp/Mecab.h:13:2: error: unknown type name 'mecab_t'
        mecab_t *mecab;
        ^
/Users/username/Developer/myApp/myApp/Mecab.m:29:11: warning: implicit declaration of function 'mecab_new2' is invalid in C99 [-Wimplicit-function-declaration]
                mecab = mecab_new2([[@"-d " stringByAppendingString:path] UTF8String]);
                        ^
/Users/username/Developer/myApp/myApp/Mecab.m:32:49: warning: implicit declaration of function 'mecab_strerror' is invalid in C99 [-Wimplicit-function-declaration]
                        fprintf(stderr, "error in mecab_new2: %s\n", mecab_strerror(NULL));
                                                                     ^
/Users/username/Developer/myApp/myApp/Mecab.m:32:49: warning: format specifies type 'char *' but the argument has type 'int' [-Wformat]
                        fprintf(stderr, "error in mecab_new2: %s\n", mecab_strerror(NULL));
                                                              ~~     ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                                                              %d
/Users/username/Developer/myApp/myApp/Mecab.m:38:8: error: unknown type name 'mecab_node_t'
        const mecab_node_t *node;
              ^
/Users/username/Developer/myApp/myApp/Mecab.m:42:9: warning: implicit declaration of function 'mecab_sparse_tonode2' is invalid in C99 [-Wimplicit-function-declaration]
        node = mecab_sparse_tonode2(mecab, buf, l);
               ^
/Users/username/Developer/myApp/myApp/Mecab.m:65:3: warning: implicit declaration of function 'mecab_destroy' is invalid in C99 [-Wimplicit-function-declaration]
                mecab_destroy(mecab);
                ^
5 warnings and 2 errors generated.

CompileC /Users/username/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/myApp-alstnncsvqtenwfmppcsobrovoao/Build/Intermediates/myApp.build/Debug-iphoneos/myApp.build/Objects-normal/arm64/Mecab.o myApp/Mecab.m normal arm64 objective-c com.apple.compilers.llvm.clang.1_0.compiler
    cd /Users/username/Developer/myApp
    export LANG=en_US.US-ASCII
    export PATH="/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/Developer/usr/bin:/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin"
    /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Toolchains/XcodeDefault.xctoolchain/usr/bin/clang -x objective-c -arch arm64 -fmessage-length=0 -fdiagnostics-show-note-include-stack -fmacro-backtrace-limit=0 -std=c99 -fobjc-arc -fmodules -fmodules-cache-path=/Users/username/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/ModuleCache -fmodules-prune-interval=86400 -fmodules-prune-after=345600 -fbuild-session-file=/Users/username/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/ModuleCache/Session.modulevalidation -fmodules-validate-once-per-build-session -Wnon-modular-include-in-framework-module -Werror=non-modular-include-in-framework-module -Wno-trigraphs -fpascal-strings -O0 -fno-common -Wno-missing-field-initializers -Wno-missing-prototypes -Werror=return-type -Wunreachable-code -Wno-implicit-atomic-properties -Werror=deprecated-objc-isa-usage -Werror=objc-root-class -Wno-arc-repeated-use-of-weak -Wduplicate-method-match -Wno-missing-braces -Wparentheses -Wswitch -Wunused-function -Wno-unused-label -Wno-unused-parameter -Wunused-variable -Wunused-value -Wempty-body -Wconditional-uninitialized -Wno-unknown-pragmas -Wno-shadow -Wno-four-char-constants -Wno-conversion -Wconstant-conversion -Wint-conversion -Wbool-conversion -Wenum-conversion -Wshorten-64-to-32 -Wpointer-sign -Wno-newline-eof -Wno-selector -Wno-strict-selector-match -Wundeclared-selector -Wno-deprecated-implementations -DDEBUG=1 -DOBJC_OLD_DISPATCH_PROTOTYPES=0 -isysroot /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/Developer/SDKs/iPhoneOS9.3.sdk -fstrict-aliasing -Wprotocol -Wdeprecated-declarations -miphoneos-version-min=9.3 -g -Wno-sign-conversion -fembed-bitcode-marker -I/Users/username/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/myApp-alstnncsvqtenwfmppcsobrovoao/Build/Intermediates/myApp.build/Debug-iphoneos/myApp.build/myApp.hmap -I/Users/username/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/myApp-alstnncsvqtenwfmppcsobrovoao/Build/Products/Debug-iphoneos/include -I/Users/username/Developer/myApp/myApp -I/Users/username/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/myApp-alstnncsvqtenwfmppcsobrovoao/Build/Intermediates/myApp.build/Debug-iphoneos/myApp.build/DerivedSources/arm64 -I/Users/username/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/myApp-alstnncsvqtenwfmppcsobrovoao/Build/Intermediates/myApp.build/Debug-iphoneos/myApp.build/DerivedSources -F/Users/username/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/myApp-alstnncsvqtenwfmppcsobrovoao/Build/Products/Debug-iphoneos -fno-objc-arc -include /Users/username/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/myApp-alstnncsvqtenwfmppcsobrovoao/Build/Intermediates/PrecompiledHeaders/LibMecabSample_Prefix-fbzdoofsvssuyecvsrlrazplcjeo/LibMecabSample_Prefix.pch -MMD -MT dependencies -MF /Users/username/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/myApp-alstnncsvqtenwfmppcsobrovoao/Build/Intermediates/myApp.build/Debug-iphoneos/myApp.build/Objects-normal/arm64/Mecab.d --serialize-diagnostics /Users/username/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/myApp-alstnncsvqtenwfmppcsobrovoao/Build/Intermediates/myApp.build/Debug-iphoneos/myApp.build/Objects-normal/arm64/Mecab.dia -c /Users/username/Developer/myApp/myApp/Mecab.m -o /Users/username/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/myApp-alstnncsvqtenwfmppcsobrovoao/Build/Intermediates/myApp.build/Debug-iphoneos/myApp.build/Objects-normal/arm64/Mecab.o

In file included from /Users/username/Developer/myApp/myApp/Mecab.m:12:
/Users/username/Developer/myApp/myApp/Mecab.h:13:2: error: unknown type name 'mecab_t'
        mecab_t *mecab;
        ^
/Users/username/Developer/myApp/myApp/Mecab.m:29:11: error: implicit declaration of function 'mecab_new2' is invalid in C99 [-Werror,-Wimplicit-function-declaration]
                mecab = mecab_new2([[@"-d " stringByAppendingString:path] UTF8String]);
                        ^
/Users/username/Developer/myApp/myApp/Mecab.m:32:49: error: implicit declaration of function 'mecab_strerror' is invalid in C99 [-Werror,-Wimplicit-function-declaration]
                        fprintf(stderr, "error in mecab_new2: %s\n", mecab_strerror(NULL));
                                                                     ^
/Users/username/Developer/myApp/myApp/Mecab.m:32:49: warning: format specifies type 'char *' but the argument has type 'int' [-Wformat]
                        fprintf(stderr, "error in mecab_new2: %s\n", mecab_strerror(NULL));
                                                              ~~     ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                                                              %d
/Users/username/Developer/myApp/myApp/Mecab.m:38:8: error: unknown type name 'mecab_node_t'
        const mecab_node_t *node;
              ^
/Users/username/Developer/myApp/myApp/Mecab.m:42:9: error: implicit declaration of function 'mecab_sparse_tonode2' is invalid in C99 [-Werror,-Wimplicit-function-declaration]
        node = mecab_sparse_tonode2(mecab, buf, l);
               ^
/Users/username/Developer/myApp/myApp/Mecab.m:65:3: error: implicit declaration of function 'mecab_destroy' is invalid in C99 [-Werror,-Wimplicit-function-declaration]
                mecab_destroy(mecab);
                ^
1 warning and 6 errors generated.

Ld /Users/username/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/myApp-alstnncsvqtenwfmppcsobrovoao/Build/Intermediates/myApp.build/Debug-iphoneos/myApp.build/Objects-normal/armv7/myApp normal armv7
    cd /Users/username/Developer/myApp
    export IPHONEOS_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=9.3
    export PATH="/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/Developer/usr/bin:/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin"
    /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Toolchains/XcodeDefault.xctoolchain/usr/bin/clang -arch armv7 -isysroot /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/Developer/SDKs/iPhoneOS9.3.sdk -L/Users/username/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/myApp-alstnncsvqtenwfmppcsobrovoao/Build/Products/Debug-iphoneos -L/Users/username/Developer/myApp -F/Users/username/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/myApp-alstnncsvqtenwfmppcsobrovoao/Build/Products/Debug-iphoneos -filelist /Users/username/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/myApp-alstnncsvqtenwfmppcsobrovoao/Build/Intermediates/myApp.build/Debug-iphoneos/myApp.build/Objects-normal/armv7/myApp.LinkFileList -miphoneos-version-min=9.3 -dead_strip -Xlinker -no_deduplicate -fembed-bitcode-marker -ObjC -fobjc-arc -fobjc-link-runtime -lstdc++ -liconv -framework CoreGraphics -framework UIKit -framework Foundation /Users/username/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/myApp-alstnncsvqtenwfmppcsobrovoao/Build/Products/Debug-iphoneos/libmecab.a -Xlinker -dependency_info -Xlinker /Users/username/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/myApp-alstnncsvqtenwfmppcsobrovoao/Build/Intermediates/myApp.build/Debug-iphoneos/myApp.build/Objects-normal/armv7/myApp_dependency_info.dat -o /Users/username/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/myApp-alstnncsvqtenwfmppcsobrovoao/Build/Intermediates/myApp.build/Debug-iphoneos/myApp.build/Objects-normal/armv7/myApp

ld: file not found: /Users/username/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/myApp-alstnncsvqtenwfmppcsobrovoao/Build/Intermediates/myApp.build/Debug-iphoneos/myApp.build/Objects-normal/armv7/Mecab.o
clang: error: linker command failed with exit code 1 (use -v to see invocation)

Ld /Users/username/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/myApp-alstnncsvqtenwfmppcsobrovoao/Build/Intermediates/myApp.build/Debug-iphoneos/myApp.build/Objects-normal/arm64/myApp normal arm64
    cd /Users/username/Developer/myApp
    export IPHONEOS_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=9.3
    export PATH="/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/Developer/usr/bin:/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin"
    /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Toolchains/XcodeDefault.xctoolchain/usr/bin/clang -arch arm64 -isysroot /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/Developer/SDKs/iPhoneOS9.3.sdk -L/Users/username/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/myApp-alstnncsvqtenwfmppcsobrovoao/Build/Products/Debug-iphoneos -L/Users/username/Developer/myApp -F/Users/username/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/myApp-alstnncsvqtenwfmppcsobrovoao/Build/Products/Debug-iphoneos -filelist /Users/username/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/myApp-alstnncsvqtenwfmppcsobrovoao/Build/Intermediates/myApp.build/Debug-iphoneos/myApp.build/Objects-normal/arm64/myApp.LinkFileList -miphoneos-version-min=9.3 -dead_strip -Xlinker -no_deduplicate -fembed-bitcode-marker -ObjC -fobjc-arc -fobjc-link-runtime -lstdc++ -liconv -framework CoreGraphics -framework UIKit -framework Foundation /Users/username/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/myApp-alstnncsvqtenwfmppcsobrovoao/Build/Products/Debug-iphoneos/libmecab.a -Xlinker -dependency_info -Xlinker /Users/username/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/myApp-alstnncsvqtenwfmppcsobrovoao/Build/Intermediates/myApp.build/Debug-iphoneos/myApp.build/Objects-normal/arm64/myApp_dependency_info.dat -o /Users/username/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/myApp-alstnncsvqtenwfmppcsobrovoao/Build/Intermediates/myApp.build/Debug-iphoneos/myApp.build/Objects-normal/arm64/myApp

ld: file not found: /Users/username/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/myApp-alstnncsvqtenwfmppcsobrovoao/Build/Intermediates/myApp.build/Debug-iphoneos/myApp.build/Objects-normal/arm64/Mecab.o
clang: error: linker command failed with exit code 1 (use -v to see invocation)

CreateUniversalBinary /Users/username/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/myApp-alstnncsvqtenwfmppcsobrovoao/Build/Products/Debug-iphoneos/myApp.app/myApp normal armv7\ arm64
    cd /Users/username/Developer/myApp
    export PATH="/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/Developer/usr/bin:/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin"
    /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Toolchains/XcodeDefault.xctoolchain/usr/bin/lipo -create /Users/username/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/myApp-alstnncsvqtenwfmppcsobrovoao/Build/Intermediates/myApp.build/Debug-iphoneos/myApp.build/Objects-normal/armv7/myApp /Users/username/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/myApp-alstnncsvqtenwfmppcsobrovoao/Build/Intermediates/myApp.build/Debug-iphoneos/myApp.build/Objects-normal/arm64/myApp -output /Users/username/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/myApp-alstnncsvqtenwfmppcsobrovoao/Build/Products/Debug-iphoneos/myApp.app/myApp

fatal error: /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Toolchains/XcodeDefault.xctoolchain/usr/bin/lipo: can't open input file: /Users/username/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/myApp-alstnncsvqtenwfmppcsobrovoao/Build/Intermediates/myApp.build/Debug-iphoneos/myApp.build/Objects-normal/armv7/myApp (No such file or directory)

I'm not sure if this is just a linker issue or perhaps something to do with the C compiler but I've been tinkering around with it for a couple of days but can't seem to figure it out. If anyone could provide a tip, I'd really appreciate it.

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 17 '16 at 23:29

4

Took hours to figure it out but I got it to work. It's actually not that difficult once you know the steps.

Ok first, manually copy the mecab folder to your project folder (It wouldn't work otherwise. Then right click on the top tree object of your project and select 'add files" .

Select the mecab.xcodeproj file in the mecab folder. It should have been added to your project tree, as well as it's subfolders and then all of the classes.

Then drag the Mecab.h/.m and Node.h/.m files into your project, making sure you select to copy them.

Then go to your project's target and in build phases add these three libraries.

Then go to "header search paths" in build settings and add the path to your mecab folder. If you copied it to your project's folder like I did then it would just look like this.

Then drag over the IPADic folder into your project, being careful not to get it under the mecab.xcproj subfolder. You want it in your main bundle otherwise mecab wont find it.

Then clean and build. It should work. I just added this into the app delegate and fed it a test string and set a breakpoint afterwards. It worked!

answered Jun 17 '16 at 23:29

Joseph Toronto

1,882
1
15
29

Thanks very much, these steps do indeed work. The only thing I would add is that if you use the original iPhone-libmecab from FLCLjp, since new projects use ARC by default, you would also need to delete the various `retain`s and `release`s from the Mecab.m and Node.m files or add `-fno-objc-arc` to their Compiler Flags in Compile Sources under the Build Phases tab. Newer versions of the library may already have these changes, though. Anyway, very complete and awesome answer. Thanks again! – lxmmxl56 Jun 20 '16 at 06:13
Yeah I didn't even bother to mention because I say you'd already done that in your fork. – Joseph Toronto Jun 20 '16 at 15:35
I updated the readme file on my github fork to include your steps for implementation. If you want to give them a look over to make sure everything is okay, please do so and let me know if I got something wrong: https://github.com/lxmmxl56/iPhone-libmecab Thanks again! – lxmmxl56 Jun 30 '16 at 10:16
Seems good. Just out of curiosity have you looked at CFStringTokenizer and NSLinguisticTagging? It seems to do a lot of the same things as Mecab and it's already part of iOS. – Joseph Toronto Jul 01 '16 at 22:51
2

I did look at those and I think CFStringTokenizer is actually using Mecab under the hood. Unfortunately, NSLinguisticTagging seems to only offer very simple tagging for Japanese (I can only seem to get "punctuation" and "OtherWord") which doesn't allow one to parse the tokens back together effectively. I think it would be okay if you were doing something like parsing out search terms from a sentence but if you need to do more than that, having direct access to Mecab's API and output might be more useful. Thanks for the recommendation, though! – lxmmxl56 Jul 04 '16 at 15:01
@lxmmxl56 I just forked from lxmmxl56's project (previous comment) and it worked straight out of the box! I'm trying to adapt it to use [naist-jdic](https://osdn.net/projects/naist-jdic/releases/53500) instead of ipadic, which uses the same format but I understand has a freer [BSD-based license](https://osdn.net/projects/naist-jdic/wiki/FrontPage). I've reproduced the various files like matrix.bin for naist-jdic, but I'm not sure how to make MeCab aware of where they are. Swapping them into the ipadic folder doesn't work: all search results appear to be empty strings (except single kanji). – Jamie Birch Apr 28 '17 at 20:11
@lxmmxl56 I found the problem! `MeCab.m` reads all the node features using `NSUTF8StringEncoding`. Thus, the dictionary files need to be configured correspondingly. So when building my `naist-jdic` fileset, I found I needed to configure it for UTF-8 instead: `./configure --with-charset=utf-8 && make`. The output `dicrc` file erroneously reports it to be EUC-JP-encoded (just like your `ipadic`'s one), but in this configuration it starts working. Alternatively, to use an EUC-JP-encoded dictionary, one can swap all mentions of `NSUTF8StringEncoding` in `MeCab.m` for `NSJapaneseEUCStringEncoding`. – Jamie Birch Apr 29 '17 at 10:27

Implementing an older Mecab library into a modern iOS app

1 Answers1