Re: [HACKERS] Re: Mysql 321 - Mysql 322 - msql

Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us> writes:

> I don't currently have any databases that could benefit from full-text
> indexes. But I can think of applications where it'd be important,
> particularly after we get rid of the limit on tuple sizes so that it
> becomes reasonable to put fair-size chunks of text into database
> entries. For example: would it be useful to put my email archive into
> a Postgres database, one message per tuple? Maybe ... but if I can't
> glimpse it afterwards, forgetaboutit.

Another very important application is the keeping of structured
documents in a database system. Advanced SGML environments do this,
and Philip Greenspun of MIT, the author of the excellent book
"Database Backed Web Sites" (see http://photo.net/ for information)
recommends doing it for HTML and other data for web publishing. The
web server AOLserver is just one example of an application that can do
this -- and if I'm not mistaken, AOLserver can even use PostgreSQL.

Anyway, once the data is in the database, and much of it is text, it
becomes very interesting to be able to efficiently index and search.

-tih
--
Popularity is the hallmark of mediocrity. --Niles Crane, "Frasier"