[Info-vax] Looking for some text search ideas

[Paul Sture]

On 2014-09-27, Simon Clubley <clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP> wrote:
> On 2014-09-27, Paul Sture <nospam at sture.ch> wrote:
>>
>> So we have established that the date here doesn't come from Random J
>> Office-Clerk.  Excellent.  :-)
>>
>
> Actually, it's potentially rather bad (depending on the maximum size of
> the field for the description).
>
> If David's working from a manufacturer's master price/parts file, then
> how does he know the manufacturer hasn't truncated/collapsed the
> description to fit in a fixed length field in some database ?

Hmm.  That does bring back memories of data coming from manufacturers'
mainframes.

> Unless you can guarantee the full keywords are in the description, the
> only reliable way to solve this specific problem is to work with the
> manufacturer's part numbers and use the parts explosion pictures to
> identify the specific part number if you don't already know it.
>
> Even if you get a list of head gaskets from a database, then how do
> you know _for_ _sure_ which one is the correct one to use unless there's
> additional attributes in the database specifying the specific range
> of products this head gasket will fit.
>
> Yes, this is day job territory for me, and yes, no one has ever asked
> me for a lookup by part description and yes, these are the questions
> I would ask if they ever did.

It used to be day job for me way back when but we had trained parts
interpreters for this.  I can imagine a search by part description once
you put this information on the web and let the end customer loose on
it.

>>> Part supersuccession (happens very often) would also suffer.
>>
>> Tell me about 'em.  Supercessions where multiple parts become whole
>> assemblies or vice versa can be a pain to handle.  Things get interesting
>> when a manufacturer re-uses a superseded part number and you or your
>> retailers still have the original part number in stock.
>
> It's probably wiser not to get me started on the subject of part
> number supersessions...

I resisted the urge myself. Some problems never completely leave you.

-- 
Microsoft: A marketing and PR company that occasionally finds time to
           produce some software