info center search. attn jerry barry.

["Steve Richter" <srichter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I vote that the info center focus their efforts on improving info center
search.

1st request.

Score a search word hit in the title of a document much higher then a hit in
the body of the document.

An example:

Search on SNDPGMMSG. A lot of hits are returned. The document titled
"SNDPGMMSG Command Description" is found on the 2nd page of search results.
All but one of the result documents listed above this doc contain the
"SNDPGMMSG" search word in its title.

If title hits are scored higher then body hits, a search for a command
definition document could be easily found by typing <command name> and
"command" as the search criteria.


2nd request:

Many times a search is done for a command or api, but the searcher does not
know the exact name of the command. Only words that describe the command.

Allow the google "site" equivalent in an info center search.  Where instead
of site, allow "doc:" or "document:".  Provide briefly named documents that
contain a list of all the commands or links to all the APIs or links to all
the "how to" documents.

When the searcher does not know the name of the command being search for but
does know its description, such as "send message", a search string of "send
message doc:AllCmds" would be entered.  The AllCmds document would contain
the title and link to each command definition document.  Searching just that
document would help the searcher find the command they are looking for.


Steve Richter
AutoCoder, LLC