Re: Better desktop search engine
Rich,
I certainly agree that it's essential to support
the market, whatever and wherever it may be:
> The customers call the shots.
Absolutely! But only one thing about MS formats
is certain: they change at least every two years,
and anyone who relies on them will get burned at
least every two years, if not sooner.
The major software developers, such as Oracle,
IBM, etc., do their software development on Unix
platforms (AIX for IBM and Linux for Oracle) and
port it to Windows, Mac, etc. That is the only way
to ensure a stable, flexible development environment.
> I'm not sure if X1 works with Thunderbird, but
> it does work with some Mozilla email clients,
> so it may. There is a way to specify additional
> extensions for indexing after you install it.
I've been using Netscape mail since the 4.x series,
and all the Mozilla versions, including Thunderbird
have continued the same practice:
1. Store all accumulated email files in the original
ASCII formats with embedded attachments in their
original MIME encodings. The email files have
*no* extensions.
2. The only difference between versions is in the
indexing files, which have the same name as the
email files, but different extensions.
3. Whenever you insert an email file into any Mozilla
folder (without the associated indexing file), the
email handler automatically scans the file to build
a new index file. (It only does that scan at startup,
so you have to exit from Thurderbird and restart it
to force it to scan the imported files.)
I take advantage of these features to write convenient
little .bat files (SaveMail, LoadMail, and ListMail),
which let me export or import email to or from archives
or other sources (such as a removable disk or USB key).
However, the email files never have any extensions.
Will X1 index ASCII text and MIME encodings in files
that have no extensions?
John