Not sure how much easier it is then the 3 lines of ruby code and 5 or
so of Java to get the two talking.
- Much easier to setup and access via a simple REST API from Ruby, Java, or
C.- Easily clusterable with the ability segregate nodes or join them for
combined results.
Lucene is also known for being speedy, and everything I’ve seen tends
to agree with this.
- Fast as hell. We use it at the NYC Dept. of Correction to find stuff and
not only does it blow Lucene out of the water even though it’s a server,
it’s easier to setup–even on windows.
Lucene will do the same giving you full document results back with
waited scroes and the like (I’m probably miss stating something here,
as my ‘advanced’ knowledge of Lucene is lacking)
- Gives good results with attributes, vectors, and other goodies included.
+1 For HE on this one
- Has a REST interface but you can just use the pure Ruby, Java, or C API to
access it.
- I’m mentioning this again because it’s the best feature.
So does Lucene/Java (obviously need the JRE installed, 5 mins at best
there)
- Runs on Windows right out of the box.
- Takes 10 minutes to setup, less on windows. That’s right, less. No JVM.
All fast binary goodness baby.
Following few points seem a bit overfill when all you need is a search
tool. (clustering might be useful for insanly large search (NYC
anything in your case would fit))
- You can embed it as a library via Ruby or Java if you want the absolute
fastest.
- Yes, this means that HE out of the box does local/embedded, remote
distributed, and linkable P2P clustered search infrastructure with minimal
setup for three languages.- Has a decent web UI for managing an estraier master (that’s the server
that controls the thing).
Didn’t buy any myself for Lucene, online examples and included
examples with source code were enough for me.
- Don’t need to buy an O’Reilly book to figure it out. Plenty of code
examples and decent docs considering the author is Japanese (better than
most English speaker’s docs really).
Lucene does the same (not sure on regular expressions, but would be
surprised if it didnt)
- Supports phrase search, regular expressions, attribute search, and
similarity search with Unicode support.
I’m not bashing HE in anyway as I’ve never used it, but just trying to
point your (or anyones) “Just use X…” statment is misleading and can
lead to narrow minded descions. While HE may work for you and others,
that doesn’t mean that something else wont fill the role just as
nicely and maybe even better. So why not state, “Why not give X a
try.,” and then follow on with the reasons why YOU like it.
Sorry for the rambling, but thats my 2cents…
-Nick