Re: GSoC Project Progress Update: Apropos Replacement

[haad <haaaad%gmail.com@localhost>]

On Thu, Jun 23, 2011 at 12:05 AM, Jukka Ruohonen <jruohonen%iki.fi@localhost> 
wrote:
> On Thu, Jun 23, 2011 at 02:08:59AM +0530, Abhinav Upadhyay wrote:
>> 1. A Stopword filter: If we are doing full text search, then we also
>> expect users to enter normal queries consisting of usual English
>> words
>
> Indeed, free form queries seem like the way to go.
>
>> 2. A ranking function: A ranking function is very necessary, so that
>> Sqlite ranks and gives back the most useful results at the top. If you
>> try the apropos in the master branch and the one in search branch, you
>> will notice drastic difference in the quality of search results. But
>> even after this lots of effort is required to improve it.
>
> Besides the usual frequency, possible ranking scores (or "static weights")
> could involve the earlier mentioned .Nm and .Nd. Say, if a word "string"
> appears already in the title, it may be a better result than several
> appearances of the word "string" in the body of the text.
>
>> - What are the most important things you would look for when
>> performing a search across man pages ?
>
> It may be difficult to say because we have never had a reasonable search
> utility for man pages ;-). But I think the examples you noted were pretty
> much spot on; from "how to add user" and "package installation" to "kernel
> memory" or "vnode locking".

Usually when I want to use search in man pages I don't know exact name
of function or global man page name.

>
> - Do you like the current results ?
>
> Yes, the results were very reasonable already.
>
> - Jukka.
>



-- 


Regards.

Adam