[Xapian-discuss] Xapian-discuss Digest, Vol 88, Issue 9

[Sam Millman]

Sorry about the personal reply, Gmail fail :).

Your points are sound and they would benefit me hugely :).

To double check in the eyes of a phper:

"The new value will replace any existing value in the same slot (or if the
new value is empty, it will remove any existing value in the same slot)."

That sounds more like adding a value at that position on the array so that:

$doc->add_value(1, "cheese");

Would add "cheese" term at position one of your document.

$doc->add_value(1, "woo");

Would override "cheese" with the new value at position one to create:

array(
   1 => "cheese"
);

If that is the case (which I believe it is now) then that is much better.

Thanks,

On 21 September 2011 15:30, James Aylett <james-xapian at tartarus.org> wrote:

> Please keep replies on-list.
>
> On 21 Sep 2011, at 15:19, Sam Millman wrote:
>
> >> One of the problems we have is it's not always obvious where to look in
> the docs to find things out.
> >
> > Absolutely. Like when I first saw the documentation I thought "I'll click
> on indexing to see how to index". But instead of talking about how to form a
> indexer it just talks about certain considerations you gotta take.
>
> Yeah, we should probably push the overview & quickstart before you try to
> read anything else :)
>
> >> The new value will replace any existing value with the same number (or
> if the new value is empty, it will remove any existing value with the same
> number).
> >
> > That's exactly what is confusing me about that function. It says it
> requires a Xapian::valueno which I try to find out about but get bombarded
> by other confusing method descriptions before I have even learnt how to
> index fully.
>
> Hmm. From our point of view, I'd say you're trying to run before you can
> walk: you're trying to add values before knowing how you're going to use
> them :)
>
> There should probably be a "what values get used for" document to help
> here.
>
> > Also what does it mean by number? How does number work? what does it do
> in Xapian? Do I need to manipulate it in anyway?
>
> It's…a number. Like: an integer. It specifies *which* value in the document
> you're operating on. I think the problem here goes back to an earlier point:
> this is more obvious if you're a C++ programmer (because the typedef tells
> you that Xapian::valueno is unsigned), and we need to cater better for (in
> this case) PHP programmer.
>
> It's possible that rewording the docstring here might help…the formal
> parameter name is supposed to be a hint that these are numbered slots to put
> values in. Maybe something like:
>
> Set the Document value in the given slot.
>
> The new value will replace any existing value in the same slot (or if the
> new value is empty, it will remove any existing value in the same slot).
>
> It doesn't help that value has a dual meaning here because of the name of
> the formal parameter, but that's difficult to change :/
>
> J
>
> --
>  James Aylett
>  talktorex.co.uk - xapian.org - devfort.com
>
>