Re: boolean search

[Francesco Pietra <frapietra@alice.it>]

Hi Don:
do you know Asksam?  I would like to have something like that, at that speed 
and breath of search.
Cheers
francesco

On Sunday 18 June 2006 20:21, Don Montgomery wrote:
> Francesco,
>
> Any text editor will have hotkey search on
> case-insensitive character strings, which allows you to
> use a text file to store and find unstructured text data.
> For ease of use, I especially like the "incremental
> search" feature in emacs.  A simple textfile, no matter
> how searchable, may be too free-form for you (and it will
> not support the embedding of binary objects).  If so, what
> _is_ on your wish list for such an application?  Are you
> thinking of a flat file database?  Could you use a
> spreadsheet?
>
> Don
>
> On Sun, 18 Jun 2006, Francesco Pietra wrote:
> > Date: Sun, 18 Jun 2006 18:01:46 +0200
> > From: Francesco Pietra <frapietra@alice.it>
> > To: debian-user@lists.debian.org
> > Cc: debian_amd64 <debian-amd64@lists.debian.org>
> > Subject: boolean search
> > Resent-Date: Sun, 18 Jun 2006 13:02:19 -0500 (CDT)
> > Resent-From: debian-amd64@lists.debian.org
> >
> > What about a boolean search application? I mean to use it as a free-form
> > personal database, not for internet. Not for a relational database, which
> > is not what a scientists is aimed at to record scientific literature
> > abstracts.
> >
> > It would be useful if records could accept embedded graphics, although i
> > do not pretend that a graphical search is made available.
> >
> > If such a software is not available for deabian users, why not taking
> > that as a project? In the hands of an expert programmer, It could simply
> > start as a boolean search, but, step by step during use, it could be
> > developed also as a mathematical search (equal to, more than, less than,
> > etc). Such thing is an indispensable tool for disciplines that are not
> > purely theoretical but also make recourse to data.
> >
> > Dont say, please, ask the science list, because what I am proposing is
> > much wider than that (which justifies the project; moreover, the science
> > list is dangerously becoming fractionated for specializations). Boolean
> > search is extremely useful also in business, legal affairs, etc,  and it
> > is far less time consuming that maintaining a structured database. Not to
> > say of the boring maintaining of a structured database. While you
> > maintain a free-form database you just learn. It is the same as
> > traditional learning.
> >
> > cheers
> > francesco pietra