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Re: Re: Bug in Archive Searches

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg55896] Re: [mg55864] Re: [mg55839] Bug in Archive Searches
  • From: János <janos.lobb at yale.edu>
  • Date: Sat, 9 Apr 2005 03:55:44 -0400 (EDT)
  • References: <200504050400.j35403II017831@localhost.localdomain> <200504070910.FAA12974@smc.vnet.net> <acbec1a40504070600728a814f@mail.gmail.com> <200504080536.BAA25138@smc.vnet.net>
  • Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

On a Mac with the stripped skin OS the way to go about it would be to  
add a Types structure to the structure that can be displayed with

mdimport -X

it could be something like:

         "com.wolfram.nb" = {
             allattrs = (
                 kMDItemTitle,
                 kMDItemAuthors,
                 kMDItemDescription,
                 kMDItemVersion,
                 kMDItemNumberOfPages,
                 kMDItemPageWidth,
                 kMDItemPageHeight,
                 kMDItemSecurityMethod,
                 kMDItemCreator,
                 kMDItemEncodingApplications
             );
             displayattrs = (
                 kMDItemTitle,
                 kMDItemAuthors,
                 kMDItemDescription,
                 kMDItemVersion,
                 kMDItemNumberOfPages,
                 kMDItemPageWidth,
                 kMDItemPageHeight,
                 kMDItemSecurityMethod,
                 kMDItemCreator,
                 kMDItemEncodingApplications
             );
             name = "com.wolfram.nb";
  };

or whatever kMDItemxxxxyyyyyzzzz attributes WRI works out with Apple.

Then, if the application is in Application, its content will be  
discovered and cataloged into the metadata storage by the metadata  
crawler running on the machine.  Then voile you got MathLight :)

I just created a pdf from an obscured notebook containing some more  
obscured words for which Help and Finder Find did not work, and now  
if I search for them in Finder, I get the hit for the pdf.  I do not  
see any reason why it should not work for an ".nb" the same way.

János

On Apr 8, 2005, at 1:36 AM, DrBob wrote:

>> Help does have an index, which is what Google has of the internet.
>> Typing text in the master index will find terms from many different
>> entries, so I wonder if it is accurate to say that help does not have
>> search.
>
> It's completely accurate to say Help isn't searchable. Read on.
>
> Help articles have keywords; if you search for something that isn't  
> a keyword, you're out of luck. Just as a single example, search for  
> "rectangular" in Help. You won't find the VectorAnalysis package,  
> which includes the phrase "rectangular coordinate system". If you  
> search Help for the whole phrase, you won't find anything at all.
>
> Look for "elliptic" (mentioned in the same package article) and  
> Help won't find it. There are probably a thousand words in the  
> article that are not keywords for that article.
>
> NVariationalBound is not a keyword and ?NVariationalBound gets you  
> no information UNTIL you have loaded the  
> Calculus`VariationalMethods` package, whose Help article does,  
> indeed, list that function. You CANNOT find it unless you already  
> know where it is.
>
> So... No, Help isn't searchable; it's merely indexed. It starts to  
> be the same thing only if the keyword list for every article is  
> reasonably COMPLETE. The situation has improved in recent releases,  
> but keywords can never really replace search capability.
>
> As for Google -- fine, if (a) WRI truly wants to outsource basic  
> Help functions and (b) you're content to do a search that could  
> take you almost anywhere.
>
> Can I use Google to search 5.1.1 Help files only, for instance? If  
> I search Wolfram's site, I'll get obsolete references to every  
> Mathematica version -- or, as in my previous post, I won't find the  
> thread I know is there, somewhere.
>
> Don't get me wrong -- I'm a big fan of Mathematica or I wouldn't be  
> here -- and a Help browser that executes code is nice to have.
>
> But documentation needs to be searchable. Period.
>
> Bobby
>
> On Thu, 7 Apr 2005 09:00:16 -0400, Chris Chiasson  
> <chris.chiasson at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Help does have an index, which is what Google has of the internet.
>> Typing text in the master index will find terms from many different
>> entries, so I wonder if it is accurate to say that help does not have
>> search.
>>
>> One way to search all forums on the Wolfram website is by using the
>> site operator in Google.
>>
>> ex:
>> "what I want to find site:forums.wolfram.com" (without quotation  
>> marks)
>>
>> On Apr 7, 2005 5:10 AM, DrBob <drbob at bigfoot.com> wrote:
>>> I've notified WRI several times that searches at pages like
>>>
>>> http://forums.wolfram.com/mathgroup/archive/2005/Mar/
>>>
>>> under "Search the Archive" do not return complete results. For  
>>> instance, searching for "Bug in Import" doesn't find the recent  
>>> thread on that subject. There are over 2 dozen messages on that  
>>> very page, but none of them show up in the search results.
>>>
>>> In response, I've been thanked for making a "suggestion" and  
>>> given this advice:
>>>
>>>> One way to work around this issue is to search MathGroup via  
>>>> Google. For
>>>> example, if you would like to search for "Bug in Import", you  
>>>> could search
>>>> for:
>>>>
>>>> MathGroup "Bug in Import"
>>>
>>> I was getting used to the fact that Help isn't searchable, but...
>>>
>>> Now I'm to believe text searches in the archive are too hard, as  
>>> well?
>>>
>>> Bobby
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
> -- 
> DrBob at bigfoot.com



----------------------------------------------
Trying to argue with a politician is like lifting up the head of a  
corpse.
(S. Lem: His Master Voice)


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