xml parser

[Avi Rappoport]

At 8:22 AM -0800 11/4/98, Tim Bray wrote:
> At 10:55 AM 11/4/98 -0000, Michael Kay wrote:
> >My immediate answer to this is yes, all the information you need for a
> >search engine is available via the SAX or DOM interface offered by many
> >parsers.
>
> I disagree.  Few parsers track byte offsets or other locational info in
> the file, and I think you need that to do basic things like proximity
> and phrase search.

What Tim said.  Most search engines do not have database storage, they have 
a fairly simple inverted index.  Trying to put all the XML info in there 
would overload them.  The point of having an XML search is to have metadata 
and context, so you probably need to use some of the more sophisticated 
text retrieval and library systems.

BTW, I'm trying to collect information on XML and search, so please keep me 
posted if you are working on something.  I post everything I hear about at 
<http://www.searchtools.com/related/xml.html>

Avi
________________________________________________________________
Avi Rappoport, Web Site Search Tools Maven: <mailto:avirr at lanminds.com>
Guide to Site Indexing and Local Search Engines: <http://www.searchtools.com>

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