[sword-devel] Searching and Lucene thoughts

[Will Thimbleby]

On 2 Mar 2005, at 7:53 pm, Chris Little wrote:

> The standard linear search is the most general purpose search 
> algorithm, and I think general purpose is what we need to maintain. 
> For people who want faster searches, there is indexed searching 
> available.

While this in some sense is true. The method might be the most general 
but *our* algorithm is not the most general purpose search algorithm. 
For instance, lucene can do fuzzy and proximity (within verses) which 
we aren't close to being able to do. It can also do simpler things like 
NOT, wildcards and metadata; and this within the one query. And it does 
these instantly.

Searching is the most criticised feature of MacSword (using our current 
method) the most common critisisms are the speed and the strange 
syntax, or double wildcard searching. eg. god finding Gudgodah

Using lucene has given MacSword one of the best search bible engines 
around. Although some day I might out-grow lucene, it has given me a 
much much more powerful, fast and general search engine than our 
current theoretically "general" engine.

Having said all that, nothing I've done has affected the sword library. 
I link to the lucene jar straight from MacSword and use my own code to 
do all the searching.

Hope this is persuasive. :)

--will