global full-text search for NetBSD

[David Young <dyoung%pobox.com@localhost>]

What with the arrival of SQLite w/ FTS support and the new apropos in
the base system, I'm eager to see NetBSD keep up the momentum and sprout
a global full-text search similar to Spotlight on the Macintosh and
whatever it is that Windows does today.

On the Mac, I use Spotlight to switch applications and to find
virtually everything (programmer's manuals, iChat conversations, System
Preferences control panels).  Using the Spotlight hotkey (I've mapped
it to Control-Space) and some other key commands that are in my muscle
memory, I estimate that most documents & windows are fewer than seven
keystrokes away.

On NetBSD, well, I cannot find anything.

I found an article,
<http://www.macosxtips.co.uk/index_files/terminal-commands-for-improving-spotlight.php>,
 that talks about Apple's Spotlight technology in terms
that may be more familiar and comfortable to NetBSD developers.

Spotlight has some problems that should not be replicated.  It does not
index the on-line help, not even as an option, nor does it index window
titles or *content*.

Dave

--
David Young
dyoung%pobox.com@localhost    Urbana, IL    (217) 721-9981