On Wed, May 15, 2002 at 01:15:07PM +0100, Mike Taylor wrote:
> > Date: Tue, 14 May 2002 12:18:03 -0400
> > From: Ray Denenberg <[log in to unmask]>
> >
> > 4. Distributed searching is theoretically possible, but all indexes
> > should have well-known prefixes. (Or, you could send non-prefixed
> > indexes to different servers but you cannot assume that they mean
> > the same thing to different servers.)
>
> I don't see a problem here at all. If you want to do a distributed
> title search for "dinosaurs", you should send the CQL search
> "title=dinosaurs" to all your servers. What kind of title? Who
> cares! Let the server worry about it.
Well, I guess I am a caring sort of guy...
Ok, more seriously, I think it would be better to start using
names other than easy ones like "title". I want to search on
"function". I have a very specific domain in mind. But I am
not telling you what it is. How many interpretations of "function"
can you come up with and how many false hits would I get if
I queried across all of them?
> When you're doing this kind of thing, it's at best pointless and at
> worst misleading to express your search with a great deal of
> precision. The truth is that when searching multiple servers, you
> simply cannot realistically expect them to support the "same" searches
> in any meaningful sense. All you can ask is that they support
> "sufficiently similar" searches, and that's exactly what unqualified
> "title" asks for.
It depends what servers you are searching across. If you are searching
all Z39.50 servers in the world, I would agree. If you are searching
all e-prints servers, I would disagree. And the latter is the sort of
situation I want to support, not the former Google sort of search.
And I guess there is this part of me that says "design a good design
based on what can be achived - don't design based on the worst case
and assume things can never get better". Mind you my Z39.50 interop
testing should have taught me better by now! ;-)
But I am happy to allow CQL support un-prefixed index names.
I just want to allow CQL to also support prefixed index names.
Then people can do either.
Alan
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