$Id: README,v 1.2 1996/05/01 20:21:29 mike Exp $

LEGALESE
--------

     Copyright (c) 1996 Mike Heins. All rights reserved.
     This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
     modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

	You should have received a copy of the Perl license along with
	Perl; see the file README in Perl distribution.
 
	You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
	along with Perl; see the file Copying.  If not, write to
	the Free Software Foundation, 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

	You should have received a copy of the Artistic License
	along with Perl; see the file Artistic.


Author of this software makes no claim whatsoever about suitability,
reliability, edability, editability or usability of this product, and
should not be kept liable for any damage resulting from the use of
it. If you can use it, you are in luck, if not, I should not be kept
responsible. Keep a handy copy of your backup tape at hand.

DESCRIPTION
-----------
Search::Text is a module designed to implement a common search interface
to a number of different text-based search engines.  Two example search
modules are included with the distribution.

Capabilities include:

	o Search only certain fields in a delimited text record
	o Match specific strings to specific fields
	o On-the-fly selection of search engine
	o Return any field with in the record, including
	  fields delimited with a label
	o Skips header lines within files
	o Hooks for relevancy sorting
	o Hooks for implementing a complete search language
	o Case sensitivity
	o AND/OR implemented in examples, NEAR/NOT supported
	  in base class
	o Cache search histories
	o Cache match returns for paging
	o Search multiple files
	o much more


Two modules are provided initially, one for searching with Perl's
built in regex matching, and one for Glimpse.  The same search
routines should work for both with only minor differences -- in fact,
if your machine is fairly standard there should be no difference in
operation.

	use Search::TextSearch;
	use Search::Glimpse;


	%options = (
					case_sensitive  => 1,
					search_file     => 'index.txt',
				);

	$t = new Search::TextSearch %options;
	$g = new Search::Glimpse %options;

	$t->search('FooBar');
	$g->search('FooBar');

Both should operate the same provided the glimpse indices are set
up to search the current directory.

After installation, you should be able to access the documentation
with the command:

	perldoc Search::Base

INSTALLATION
------------
To install this module type

	perl Makefile.PL
	make
	make test
	make install


EXAMPLES
---------
A couple of meager examples are in the documentation, and there
will be more as the next release occurs. 

AUTHOR
------
Mike Heins
mikeh@iac.net

Std dstribution site: CPAN/authors/id/MIKEH

BUGS
-----
Glimpse can't search based on fields when returning file names.

The TextSearch should probably do a unary search on only one
pattern, but then you could do it yourself.
