* Chris Josephes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [2004-01-19 15:46]:
> Searching doesn't have to be limited to the name of the module
> itself.  Almost everything in CPAN has POD documentation, which
> could be parsed, or there could be extensions to Makefile.PL
> (or maybe META.yml files, for people that go in that
> direction).

search.cpan.org seems to already do, and Kobe's search definitely
does. That still doesn't help that much. Even though it's useful,
a fulltext search is never as coherent as a good keyword search.
A problem with fulltext search is ranking; you don't have that
with well-chosen name/keyword searches. Something's called
HTML::Template or XML::Parser is obviously worth a look when I'm
looking for a templating system or an XML parser -- even if it
came up at the bottom of the page.

> Modules can still have descriptive names even in a hierarchial
> namespace.  In some cases, the names can be even more
> descriptive.

That's why it is often a point of discussion on this list which
part of the name should go into a separate namespace level and
which. Building a (possibly mostly flat) hierarchy is still
helpful with a search engine -- it helps the user rank results
for himself at first look.

-- 
Regards,
Aristotle
 
"If you can't laugh at yourself, you don't take life seriously enough."

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