> -----Original Message-----
> From: SRU (Search and Retrieve Via URL) Implementors
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> On Behalf Of Edward C. Zimmermann
> Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2005 3:34 PM
> 
> But you are, de-facto, also demanding that the user
> also know and understand how the records you get
> are structured to be able to search them.

That is the whole point of proximity searching.  The user asserts that
they know something special about the structure of the record or its
content.  When I say I want books where the author word "Ralph" is next
to the author word "LeVan", I am asserting that I know something about
the structure of the record.  I know that the first name is in the same
field as the last name.  If they weren't in the same field, then that
search wouldn't work.

> From a systems view how you get records and how you use records are
> different
> things and there is no rule, is there, that does not allow one to
> pre-process the records you get.. Most of us do this anyway..

Sorry, but most of us DON'T do that, at least not in the commercial
world.  The provider had a reason for structuring the data the way they
did and it would be foolish of us to claim that we understand their data
better than they do.

Ralph