Re: more on attribute proposal

> Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2003 17:46:57 -0400
> From: "Ray Denenberg, Library of Congress" <rden@loc.gov>
> 
> So I see two possibilities:
> 1. A single-word search would be handled by one of the
>    word-comparison attributes (one of these would be "singled-out"
>    for this use), no format/structure attribute included. If the
>    term is a single-word but is to be searched as a string, then
>    another comparison would be used. [aside: I'm not sure which one
>    though. "Equal" seems to be precluded, since the Utility set
>    prose says that it cannot be used with
>    expansion/interpretation. On the other hand, Bath uses it.  This
>    may be another defect that we should address.]
> 2. When the term is a single-word, the comparison attribute may not be
>    one of the above three (they can only be used for multiple words)
>    and the format/structure 'word' or 'string' is supplied.
> 
> I think we need to nail down one of these two, and I don't really
> care which.

I would like to register strong objection to both of these approaches.
One of the guiding principles of the attribute architecture has always
been that it should allow things to be clearly, orthogonally stated.
This principle clearly militates against complex and
hard-to-understand rules such as "If a comparison attribute of
allWords, anyWords or adjacentWords is supplied and the term consists
of a single word, then that word is searched for as a word within the
field specified by the access point; if none of these attributes is
supplied, then the search is for records in which the field in its
entirety consists of that word."

Also I would draw your attention once more to the problem of how to
specify whether to scan for complete titles or words occurring in
titles.  Alan has discussed this matter in detail and very
persuasively, as the archives will show.

 _/|_	 _______________________________________________________________
/o ) \/  Mike Taylor  <mike@indexdata.com>  http://www.miketaylor.org.uk
)_v__/\  "He was not the least bit scared to be mashed into a pulp /
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	 To have his kneecaps split, and his body burned away, /
	 And his limbs all hacked and mangled, brave Sir Robin" --
	 Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

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Received on Saturday, 19 July 2003 04:24:52 UTC