[KinoSearch] more abstract interfaces to kinosearch

[Hans Dieter Pearcey]

On Mon, Jul 02, 2007 at 05:22:04PM -0400, Hans Dieter Pearcey wrote:
> I can try to explain this better later when I'm not late for dinner. :)

With a little time to think about it, I can now sum up better what I would find
really helpful.

I don't mind reading documentation and source.  KinoSearch is more impenetrable
to me than most libraries, though, both because it's got so much C (making
random Dumpering difficult) and because there are a lot of different classes.

A basic overview of how the different components of searching work together
would make it much easier for me to understand each individual piece.  I'm
aware of Filters, Queries, Scorers, Posting, Collectors, and so on, but for
anything past Filter and Query I have only a vague idea what they do; even for
Filter and Query I don't understand the difference much beyond "filters cache
and queries don't".

I'd really enjoy using all the pieces in the different combinations to do what
I want.  I don't think I want KinoSearch to do more than it's designed to.  In
some ways, the difficulty I've had grasping the details has been more
frustrating specifically because it is clearly very modular; if it were a big
chunk of unmalleable code, I'd give up and move on.

If you don't have the time to go into great detail, that's understandable.
Even a general sketch would help a lot.

Also, if you're interested, I wouldn't mind trying to organize anything I learn
into part of the manual, though documentation isn't my strong point.
Docs::DevGuide seems like a reasonable place for an "overview of KinoSearch
and how the classes fit together" section.

hdp.