Searchable archives question

[steve ravet]

d houlton x0710 wrote:
> 
> Who controls the archives for the list?  Would it be possible to change
> the context (body) search to be a regexp instead of or-ing search
> words together.
> 
> It's next to useless for finding something if I have to wade through
> 700 messages because I can't narrow it down somewhat.
> 
> The Subject line search does use the regexp search which is why I ask.
> 
> thanks
> --Dan

Dan, I maintain the WWW page, which includes the archive search. 
Improving the search engine is on my list of things to-do, but it hasn't
been done yet.  Basically there's a WAIS server that indexes and
searches the archive files, and something called SFgate that is an
interface between WAIS and the WWW page.  I don't know anything about
either of those so there's a steep learning curve to make this change.

If there's a WAIS or SFgate expert somewhere on the list, then speak up
'cause this is somewhere that I could use some help.

--steve