: > queries, then "*" is going to be parsed as a zero width prefix on : > whatever : > the defaultSearchField is and return all results which have a value in : > that field ... but that may confuse a lot of people who might : > assume it is : > giving them all docs in the index (and since they are going to get : > results : > instead of errors, they won't have any indication that they are wrong) : : Hmmm... good point. But the same expectation would be the case with : [* TO *] too.
my point was just that if you arne't very familiar with teh syntax and you say: " q=* " you might assuming you'll get all docs -- and unless your defaultSearchField is something weird, you will get a lot of docs, but not neccessarily all. if someone searches for: " q=[* TO *] " then they probably didn't just guess that, they probably know something about the syntax, and are more likely to realize they are just searching a single (default field). : *:* to find all documents regardless of field seems good to me, where : as simply * or [* TO *] would use the default field. i guess what i'm saying is that while i like the syntax of " q=field:* " to mean everything with a value in that field, i don't think it's worth adding it if as a side effect " q=* " becomes a legal expression that does the same thing for hte default field, because it will be more missleading. -Hoss
