On Fri, 31 Jul 1998, Maximo Migliari wrote:

> Have you ever considered perhaps making a version of SWISH++ which also takes
> on SWISH-E configuration files??

	No.  From the README:

README>	Things not implemented:
README>	-----------------------
README> ...
README> 2. Configuration files.  SWISH++ allows everything to be
README>    specified on the command-line.  (If you don't like doing a
README>    lot of repetative typing, use a Makefile or cron job.)  The
README>    code to parse configuration files simply isn't worth adding.

> I'm sure that not only would your search engine be more popular,

	I'm not out to win a popularity contest.  From the README:

README>	Note: I wrote SWISH++ to solve my immediate indexing problems;
README>	therefore, I implemented only those features useful to me.  If
README>	others can also benefit from the work, great.

	What is implied in the above paragraph is:

		...if they can't benefit from the work, oh
		well.  They're free to use something else.

> it would have a wider developer base from which to expand and potentially
> become the best and friendliest freeware indexing and search engine on the
> net.

	I presume people who face similar problems to the ones I faced
	will use SWISH++.  The fact is that SWISH++ is blindingly fast
	and can auto-split and remerge mountains of data.  If somebody
	*needs* such features from a free indexing and search engine
	package, they really don't have any other choice (to the best
	of my knowlegde).  Hence, I really can't imagine somebody
	saying, "Well, SWISH++ doesn't accept SWISH-E configuration
	files...I guess we can't use it then."

> I know supporting SWISH-E configuration files is not REALLY needed, I also
> know that webmasters could also develop their own versions of the search.pl
> Perl program, however, if both of these were provided, people would have
> access to an easy-to-use, powerfull search system which would take minutes to
> implement and would be extremely easy to manage.

	I have no idea what search.pl is: I've never used it.

> What people really want is to spend as little time as possible implementing
> and maintaining a search engine on their sites.  A "complete package"
> solution is what everyone really is looking for, and I'm sure you could
> achieve that if you were to make at least one or two of the suggestions my
> hunble self has made.

	I fail to see how not being able to read SWISH-E configuration
	files makes SWISH++ any less of a "complete package" any more
	than not being able to read Glimpse or Excite or some other
	search engine's configuration files.

	SWISH++ is an entirely separate and distinct software package
	that just so happens to share a base name.

	I provide a toy search form and CGI script for interfacing
	SWISH++ to the web.  If I were to provide a more elaborate form
	and script, I think it would be a total waste of my time since
	I very much doubt that the form and script would *not* be
	customized for every different web site it's put on.

	In my opinion, any webmaster that used a form and script I
	provided as-is, no matter how elaborate, without making the web
	interface blend seemlessly into his/her web site is being
	extremely lazy.

	- Paul