cl-info revision



Hello,

I am working on a revision of the cl-info code (which powers
the describe function). The primary goal to make describe run
faster; it is too slow on slow processors (e.g. mine).
A secondary goal is arrange the searchable topics so that
different kinds of searches can be implemented
(e.g. exact match vs inexact, title vs category vs keyword).

The major part of it is to search for topics in a list of topic
strings, instead of carrying out searches on the info file itself.
The topic strings are keys for a hash table in which the
associated value tells what info file to read, the byte offset
of the item, and the length in bytes. Then retrieval is very fast.

For the moment, the user interface is the same as before
(i.e. user sees a list of items and chooses some).

The hash table is static; it is built once, and then loaded into
Maxima. At present the table is built by a Perl script.
A question for consideration: building the look-up table
with a separate script means there is another step in build
process. But then there is no time spent building the table
at run-time. That seems like an acceptable trade-off to me.
Yes/no ?

Other comments?

HTH
Robert Dodier