# \[ANN\] Ferret 0.9.0-alpha (port of Apache Lucene to pure ruby

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ann-ferret-0-9-0-alpha-port-of-apache-lucene-to-pure-ruby/55307>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [March 19, 2006, 1:12pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ann-ferret-0-9-0-alpha-port-of-apache-lucene-to-pure-ruby/55307 "2006-03-19T13:12:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![david](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@david](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/david)\
**Post date:** [March 19, 2006, 1:12pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ann-ferret-0-9-0-alpha-port-of-apache-lucene-to-pure-ruby/55307/1 "2006-03-19T13:12:00Z")

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Hi Folks,

I’ve just released version 0.9.0. This latest version of Ferret is an  
alpha release. I have removed the old c extension and Ferret is now  
running on a fully ported C library. This has allowed some huge  
performance improvements both with regard to memory and CPU usage.

There will probably be a few portability issues to start with. It has  
been developed on Linux so it should work fine there. Windows and Mac  
users beware.

Also, the current version doesn’t allow you to extend Ferret. For  
example, you can’t write your own analyzer or filter. This will be  
rectified in the near future.

[http://ferret.davebalmain.com/trac/](http://ferret.davebalmain.com/trac/)

Dave Balmain

== Description

Ferret is a full port of the Apache Lucene searching and indexing  
library. It’s available as a gem so try it out! To get started quickly  
read the quick start at the project homepage;

[http://ferret.davebalmain.com/api](http://ferret.davebalmain.com/api)  
[http://ferret.davebalmain.com/api/files/TUTORIAL.html](http://ferret.davebalmain.com/api/files/TUTORIAL.html)

== Changes

- currently this version isn’t very extendable. For example,  
you can’t write your own Analyzer, Filter or Query.
- changed Token#term\_text to Token#text
- changed Token#position\_increment to Term#pos\_inc
- changed order of args to Token.new. Now Term.new(text, start\_offset,  
end\_offset, pos\_inc=1, type=“text”). NOTE: type does nothing.
- changed TermVectorOffsetInfo#start\_offset to  
TermVectorOffsetInfo#start
- changed TermVectorOffsetInfo#end\_offset to TermVectorOffsetInfo#end
- added :id\_field option to Index::Index class.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![david](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@david](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/david)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 1:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ann-ferret-0-9-0-alpha-port-of-apache-lucene-to-pure-ruby/55307/2 "2006-03-28T13:34:33Z")

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hi david,  
I installed 0.9.0 to a heavily busy webserver (100k pagevisits/day) and  
its working flawlessly (at least it seems so 🙂 )… But I have a major  
problem. Now ferret doesnt index nor search unicode turkish characters.  
I was using StandardAnalyzer in 0.3.2 and it was working fine; because  
w+ RegExp statement was somehow working with turkish charset (UTF-8) (in  
normal conditions it shouldnt be; but I am luck I think 🙂 ).

Now is there a way that I can make ferret work with unicode again or  
should I stick to 0.3.2

thanks in advance, thanks for great work.  
onur

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![david](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@david](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/david)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 3:04pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ann-ferret-0-9-0-alpha-port-of-apache-lucene-to-pure-ruby/55307/3 "2006-03-28T15:04:49Z")

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Hi Onur,

I’m trying to solve this problem right now. You had better stick with  
0.3.2 for the moment but better analyzer support is on it’s way. I’m  
still trying to decide whether to include Oniguruma (the future Ruby  
regexp library) with ferret or just use the current regex library  
comes with Ruby. ferret-0.9.1 should have UTF-8 support.

Cheers,  
Dave

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![david](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@david](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/david)\
**Post date:** [March 29, 2006, 12:43pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ann-ferret-0-9-0-alpha-port-of-apache-lucene-to-pure-ruby/55307/4 "2006-03-29T12:43:28Z")

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thanks david, keep up the great work.