> 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.

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.

(As for heraldic titles and other such flies in the ointment: so what?
No cross-server search has 100% precision anyway; dropping from say
90% to 89%^ isn't going to kill anyone anyway.  And that's assuming
someone's heraldic database knows about a title called "dinosaurs"
which doesn'ty seem too likely!)

 _/|_    _______________________________________________________________
/o ) \/  Mike Taylor   <[log in to unmask]>   www.miketaylor.org.uk
)_v__/\  "In order to progress as a writer you must learn to struggle
         to put proper words in proper places" -- Bret Jolly.