Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!gatech!udel!princeton!phoenix!pucc!SEB From: SEB@pucc.Princeton.EDU (Scott E. Barron) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: Indexing in the Digital Librarian Message-ID: <9204@pucc.Princeton.EDU> Date: 4 Aug 89 15:26:55 GMT References: <9187@pucc.Princeton.EDU> Reply-To: SEB@pucc.Princeton.EDU Organization: Princeton University, NJ Lines: 101 Disclaimer: Author bears full responsibility for contents of this article In article , jgreely@oz.cis.ohio-state.edu (J Greely) writes: >>The files I am trying to index are very large, but not as big as the works >>of Shakespeare. > >Do you mean that the total file size is smaller than 8 meg, or that >the individual files are no larger than any in Shakespeare? The >largest directory I have successfully indexed had only a total of 2 >meg of text, with file sizes ranging from 45 bytes to 250 Kbytes. The >index is a respectable 800K. The folder that I dragged to the DL contained 65 folders, and those folders contained files ranging from 2K to 15K. The total size of the files does not exceed the size of the files in the Shakespeare folder. > >>Yet, the DL locked up the first time I tried this, and the >>second time it completed the index but the index exceeded 18MB!! The index >>on Shakespeare is less than 4MB. What am I doing wrong? > >It's possible that the text contains a great many words that seem >important enough to index (see pword(1)), or that the indexing options >were oddly set. Another possibility is that the indexing program >failed, but claimed to succeed. Are there indexing options that can be set from within the DL? Or are those options available only when using index(1)? > >>Furthermore, the first time I tried to do a search on the newly created index, >>the system locked up. > >Sounds like the third option! Was this the same copy of the Librarian >that you created the index under? Had any other aggresively >memory-hungry programs been running? Yes. No other programs were running. >>My biggest complaint about the NeXT is the lack of thorough documentation and >>the need for non-UNIX ways to handle problems/errors. > >I've found the existing documentation to be quite reasonable, despite >its very pre-release nature. Then could you please tell me where I could find documentation on the DL and specifically about indexing? How about creating icons for the DL? I find the documentation to be geared more for UNIX programmers/developers (such as yourself), rather than for general users. Also note that the documentation should not be "very pre-release" considering that 1.0 is supposed to be available shortly, and that the NeXT is (or will soon be) commercially available. >I gather you want more visual >administration tools. They are, as far as I know, in the process of >being written/debugged. The goal is to have as few tasks as possible >that require "old-fashioned" Unix administration. My back-and-forth >with the bug handling group about the console (excuse me, the "Mach >Window") has convinced me that they want *everything* done from the >Workspace, preferably in a visual fashion. Sounds promising.... They will most definitely have to implement such tools if this machine is to be successful in the business place. I would be very surprised if BusinessLand sells many NeXTs in the near future. Businesses tend to be more conservative and will be reluctant to invest in a yet unstable machine. > >>Another problem is that there is no indicator light to show when the >>printer is receiving data or when the hard disk is being accessed. > >Funny, I thought both of these were obvious. When the cube is making >coffee, the hard disk is being accessed. When the coffee beans are >being ground, the optical disk is in use. When the screen freezes, >it's preparing to send data to the printer, and when the cargo jet >takes off, it's about to begin printing. Simple. This is a cute analogy to a real problem. I wrote a 3 page document in WriteNow and then tried to print it. The print dialog box disappeared with no message, so I assumed it was going to print. Well, it never did! I later discovered that the toner was low. Of course, there is no indicator light to tell me when its low, and no way to know if the printer ever received any data to print. I wasted a lot of time and energy trying to figure out what was wrong. That's a problem!! While trying to index a target in the DL, the machine hung. The cursor indicated that the disk was being accessed and I heard some "grinding" every now and then, but the program had locked up. There was no way to tell what was going on! I had to call in the nearest UNIX guru to help me figure out what was going on. It would be nice to have a light on the hard disk so that user knows what is happening at such times. That's a problem!! Are there other non-UNIX folk out there who have used the NeXT and have general user comments about the documentation, interface, programs, browser, etc? Scott Barron IXTHUS Advanced Technology Princeton University