What happened to the advanced search?
I used to use it to find my previous posts and such.
Seems like every year the search capabilities get dumber and dumber, not just on this website, but all websites. Seems kind of ironic, since everything else is getting so much more sophisticated on the internet.
For example, with the old Alta Vista (10+ years ago), I could say things like '("benethridge" OR "ben ethridge") AND ("cutlass bearing" OR "stuffing box")'
Very powerful....but long gone.
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Ben Ethridge
Miami, FL
1984 MK1 Hull# 263
Hi Ben,
I've enabled Advanced Search - you can get to it through the main menu Help >> Search (rather than the simple search box on every page).
However, the good old days are not completely gone! You can do just what you demonstrated, without even needing Advanced Search, by searching for
benethridge OR "ben ethridge" AND "cutlass bearing" OR "stuffing box"
in the simple search box. Don't use parentheses and do capitalize the operands (OR, AND).
The display of search results needs to be improved, that's on my list.
I'm also hoping to add a link to all forum posts by a given user. lots on the list though.
[ Moving this to Website Discussion ]
Nick Tonkin
*Former* Website Administrator, C36/375IA
*Former* owner, C36 tr/fk #255, Santa Barbara, CA
Thanks, Nick. That's a little better, but the parentheses are important...same as in math.
Ben Ethridge
Miami, FL
1984 MK1 Hull# 263
Actually Ben, as in math, the parentheses are not important.
In programming, as in math, there is Operand Precedence (also called Order of Operations). This is a set of rules that define which operands come before which others.
So in math, you can say 2 + (4 * 2) or 2 + 4 * 2 and the answer is still 10 without any brackets. This is because the multiplication operand takes precedence over the addition operand. (Notwithstanding the fact that many people have forgotten this, or use "simple" calculators that ignore Operand Precedence, and would give the answer incorrectly as 12. Brackets are often used for clarity anticipating such an oversight. Brackets can also be used to override Operand Precedence, so for example (2 + 4) * 2 does return 12.)
In programming the same principles apply and there is a whole set of rules governing Operand Precedence. In the case of search we are using boolean Logical Operators AND and OR, and AND takes precedence over OR.
So (benethridge OR "ben ethridge") AND ("stuffing box" OR "cutlass bearing") is the same as benethridge OR "ben ethridge" AND "stuffing box" OR "cutlass bearing"
Bottom line: in math or in programming, you don't need parentheses unless you are overriding Operand Precedence.
Now to improve our actual search results!
Nick Tonkin
*Former* Website Administrator, C36/375IA
*Former* owner, C36 tr/fk #255, Santa Barbara, CA
Sometimes one wants to override the precedence. In that case the parentheses are vital. Good to know the feature is there...on this search engine at least. Just seems like it ought to be documented in some convenient place, so we do have to guess at what is and is not allowed, yes?
Ben Ethridge
Miami, FL
1984 MK1 Hull# 263
And now it is!
By the way, thanks for the discussion: one thing led to another and I replaced my stuffing box clamps this morning!
Nick Tonkin
*Former* Website Administrator, C36/375IA
*Former* owner, C36 tr/fk #255, Santa Barbara, CA