On 4/14/06, Nathaniel Talbott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > David Balmain wrote: > > > This is a bug. I might get around to fixing it but I can't promise > > anything. I'm focusing entirely on the C extension version of Ferret > > (which doesn't have this bug). > > Bummer... I've got a hack to avoid the problem for the time being, but > it's _really_ ugly :-/ > > This brings up another issue, though, that I'll go ahead and broach... > > I'm kind of sad that you've made the jump to C so soon. Ferret is > brimming with potential, but it still feels a lot like, well, Java. The > API is still pretty heavy, and when I dig in to the underlying code it > feels over-designed. I'm guessing a lot of that is due to the straight > translation from Java, which while it's a good first step, it's also not > surprising that it would initially result in a library that feels pretty > alien. > > While I understand the performance reasons for using C, doing so also > makes it much harder to refactor and refine the API, and my feeling is > that for most problems, the pure-Ruby performance isn't a show-stopper. > Putting everything in C also makes it harder for folks such as myself, > who don't do much C, to hack on the internals ourselves and push patches > back up to you.
The pure ruby version is still there and I'd love for someone to take over from me. I completely agree with you on the advantages of having a pure ruby version. I personally want the performance which is why I have taken the C route. And there is a huge difference. Somewhere around 100 times. There are people out there who were still using Java Lucene for indexing because of performance issues so I wasn't the only one concerned about the performance. As for refactoring the API, I understand it is very difficult for some Ruby programmers to get around the C code but you don't need to send me a patch. Just let me know what you think needs to be changed. > > I hope this comes off the right way - it's open-source, and you're of > course free to take the project where you will. I'm also extremely > grateful for the project - it's helping me out a lot. I just have doubts > about the long-term viability of Ferret within the Ruby community when > an API (and underlying code) that I find I spend a lot of time fighting > is getting set in stone so early. I'd hate to see you spend a lot of > time on it to only have it be a prototype for a more Ruby-ish library > that comes along later. I want Ferret to be the standard by which other > indexing tools are measured, in Ruby and elsewhere, and I don't think > that raw benchmarks are going to drive that. I want the same thing too. The other advantage to having the C version is that it won't be too much work to Ferret in Perl, Python, Tcl etc. > > > PS: Sorry for the slow reply. It's been a tough few weeks here. > > No problem! So what exactly do you do? Are you a student? Freelancer? > Employee? Astronaut? I'm currently an athlete. I'm practicing Judo in Japan and working on Ferret whenever I have time. > Thanks a ton for the great library, > > > Nathaniel > > -- > Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/. > _______________________________________________ > Ferret-talk mailing list > [email protected] > http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/ferret-talk > _______________________________________________ Ferret-talk mailing list [email protected] http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/ferret-talk
