I would suggest to use ** to mask out words.

Theo
PS. My long period of silence was because of my holidays. 

>>> [log in to unmask] 30-08-02 19:56 >>>
Nobody seems stressed out by the suggestion to
define a masking character for words.

Can someone suggest a character to use?

--Ray

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: masking character for words
Date: Wed, 28 Aug 2002 14:22:48 -0400
From: Ray Denenberg <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: "Z39.50 Next-Generation Initiative"
<[log in to unmask]>
Organization: Library Of Congress
To: [log in to unmask] 

Suppose we define a masking character meaning
"mask zero or more words" (as opposed to '*' which
means "mask zero or more characters")?

Wouldn't that solve most of the  index problem?
It would take care of the "first word vs. first
character" problem, and also eliminate the need
for the "Word" indexes, meaning we would need only
one index for each field.

If this seems to be a good idea, someone suggest a
character.  I can add this to the 105 proposal
(which is still out for comment, despite the fact
that the date has passed).

--Ray