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comp.lang.ruby

For Comment: Gem Browser

Steve Ross

3/17/2008 3:21:00 AM

It occurred to me that the way I was finding Gems was by making notes
of what I saw coming across this list and various other disorganized
ways. That didn't seem too bright and searching RubyForge didn't
always turn things up as I expected. So, having a dull hour or two, I
cobble a browser together.

Obviously, this is a really crude attempt and I'm just looking for
comments regarding whether it's useful:

http://gemmy.calico...

It's only running on one mongrel and I've done little to optimize it.
The searching is performed using ferret. Comments welcome on this as
well.

Currently searchable fields are gem name, author, and description. If
this seems like a bright idea, I'll probably add user annotations and
tags for starters and make them searchable as well.

Thanks in advance for your comments.
22 Answers

Chad Perrin

3/18/2008 5:54:00 AM

0

On Mon, Mar 17, 2008 at 12:20:54PM +0900, s.ross wrote:
> It occurred to me that the way I was finding Gems was by making notes
> of what I saw coming across this list and various other disorganized
> ways. That didn't seem too bright and searching RubyForge didn't
> always turn things up as I expected. So, having a dull hour or two, I
> cobble a browser together.
>
> Obviously, this is a really crude attempt and I'm just looking for
> comments regarding whether it's useful:
>
> http://gemmy.calico...
>
> It's only running on one mongrel and I've done little to optimize it.
> The searching is performed using ferret. Comments welcome on this as
> well.
>
> Currently searchable fields are gem name, author, and description. If
> this seems like a bright idea, I'll probably add user annotations and
> tags for starters and make them searchable as well.
>
> Thanks in advance for your comments.

It appears to be broken. There's no submit button, and hitting Enter
doesn't do anything when I've entered a term in the Find box. Am I
misusing it somehow?

--
CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.ap... ]
Isaac Asimov: "Part of the inhumanity of the computer is that, once it is
completely programmed and working smoothly, it is completely honest."

Chad Perrin

3/18/2008 6:12:00 AM

0

On Tue, Mar 18, 2008 at 02:53:54PM +0900, Chad Perrin wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 17, 2008 at 12:20:54PM +0900, s.ross wrote:
> > It occurred to me that the way I was finding Gems was by making notes
> > of what I saw coming across this list and various other disorganized
> > ways. That didn't seem too bright and searching RubyForge didn't
> > always turn things up as I expected. So, having a dull hour or two, I
> > cobble a browser together.
> >
> > Obviously, this is a really crude attempt and I'm just looking for
> > comments regarding whether it's useful:
> >
> > http://gemmy.calico...
> >
> > It's only running on one mongrel and I've done little to optimize it.
> > The searching is performed using ferret. Comments welcome on this as
> > well.
> >
> > Currently searchable fields are gem name, author, and description. If
> > this seems like a bright idea, I'll probably add user annotations and
> > tags for starters and make them searchable as well.
> >
> > Thanks in advance for your comments.
>
> It appears to be broken. There's no submit button, and hitting Enter
> doesn't do anything when I've entered a term in the Find box. Am I
> misusing it somehow?

Okay, so I figured out it doesn't work without accepting a cookie (a
misfeature, in my opinion). There's also the problem that there's no way
to link directly to a given search, as far as I can tell.

Is there some reason that a blank Find field shows 25 results?

I like having an online gem search tool with a clean interface like this.

--
CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.ap... ]
awj @reddit: "The terms never and always are never always true."

Steve Ross

3/18/2008 7:59:00 AM

0

On Mar 17, 2008, at 11:11 PM, Chad Perrin wrote:

> Okay, so I figured out it doesn't work without accepting a cookie (a
> misfeature, in my opinion). There's also the problem that there's
> no way
> to link directly to a given search, as far as I can tell.

Yeah, there's really no reason it needs to set a cookie right now.
But... I'm thinking there may be a need in the future for session
storage and that will require cookies.

Regarding linking to a given search, I'm pretty sure I don't
understand... do you mean like a permalink to a given result set?

> Is there some reason that a blank Find field shows 25 results?

Programmer decision :) I decided to make a blank field equal to * and
only show 25 results at a time. Again, I had to take a stab at it, and
that was my initial take.

> I like having an online gem search tool with a clean interface like
> this.


Thanks. I was totally blown away by what I learned by spielunking the
gems just a little with this search. I hope it's as much fun for
others as it is for me.

Please let me know if you have other thoughts on this.

Martin DeMello

3/18/2008 5:49:00 PM

0

On Sun, Mar 16, 2008 at 8:20 PM, s.ross <cwdinfo@gmail.com> wrote:

> http://gemmy.calico...
>
> It's only running on one mongrel and I've done little to optimize it.
> The searching is performed using ferret. Comments welcome on this as
> well.
>
> Currently searchable fields are gem name, author, and description. If
> this seems like a bright idea, I'll probably add user annotations and
> tags for starters and make them searchable as well.

I don't understand the results it gives me for 'gtk'

martin

Steve Ross

3/18/2008 6:05:00 PM

0

On Mar 18, 2008, at 10:49 AM, Martin DeMello wrote:

> On Sun, Mar 16, 2008 at 8:20 PM, s.ross <cwdinfo@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> http://gemmy.calico...
>>
>> It's only running on one mongrel and I've done little to optimize it.
>> The searching is performed using ferret. Comments welcome on this as
>> well.
>>
>> Currently searchable fields are gem name, author, and description. If
>> this seems like a bright idea, I'll probably add user annotations and
>> tags for starters and make them searchable as well.
>
> I don't understand the results it gives me for 'gtk'
>
> martin
>
Gtk is a bit of a special case. Anyone who understands ferret, please
chime in here. My understanding is that shorter words tend to get less
weight. I get one hit for "gtk" and two for "*gtk*". I'd like to
improve this kind of case. Part of this is how the gems are named and
part that the string is short. Again, if anyone knows ferret and has
suggestions, I'm all ears.

Chad Perrin

3/19/2008 12:45:00 AM

0

On Tue, Mar 18, 2008 at 04:59:00PM +0900, s.ross wrote:
> On Mar 17, 2008, at 11:11 PM, Chad Perrin wrote:
>
> >Okay, so I figured out it doesn't work without accepting a cookie (a
> >misfeature, in my opinion). There's also the problem that there's
> >no way
> >to link directly to a given search, as far as I can tell.
>
> Yeah, there's really no reason it needs to set a cookie right now.
> But... I'm thinking there may be a need in the future for session
> storage and that will require cookies.

Then refusing cookies should break session storage, but not basic search
functionality.


>
> Regarding linking to a given search, I'm pretty sure I don't
> understand... do you mean like a permalink to a given result set?

Yes.


>
> >Is there some reason that a blank Find field shows 25 results?
>
> Programmer decision :) I decided to make a blank field equal to * and
> only show 25 results at a time. Again, I had to take a stab at it, and
> that was my initial take.

You might want to indicate what's going on. I think that's a pretty neat
idea for how to handle it, but I might suggest something like making the
selected results (pseudo-)random and starting them off with a heading
that says "25 Random Gems:".


>
> >I like having an online gem search tool with a clean interface like
> >this.
>
>
> Thanks. I was totally blown away by what I learned by spielunking the
> gems just a little with this search. I hope it's as much fun for
> others as it is for me.
>
> Please let me know if you have other thoughts on this.

Something I didn't say explicitly: I'm sure you'll be adding some more to
the interface if you keep working on this. Please don't clutter things
up too much, though. As I said, I like the clean interface, and making
it look like the search results at RubyForge (for instance) would be a
Bad Thing. Take your cues from the main page of Google, and not Yahoo!,
or from reddit, and not Digg.

--
CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.ap... ]
awj @reddit: "The terms never and always are never always true."

Steve Ross

3/19/2008 7:06:00 AM

0

Hi--

A few updates to http://gemmy.calico....

+ Added description field if one is present. This is typically either
blank or the same as the summary, but where it differs, it is expanded
on demand.
+ Added more weight to gem name in an attempt to tweak full-text
matching accuracy.
+ Removed "it just breaks" dependency on cookies.
+ Added a bit more commentary to the results count to explain why only
25 are shown when 2300 are found.
+ Added obligatory dumb logo.
+ Added some "help" text (as if people who need Ruby Gems need help!).

The goal of this tool is to be pretty quick and pretty functional and
pretty bare bones. Just the facts.

As always, I'm interested in your comments and suggestions --
particularly whether search is finding what you expect and whether
help is helpful or a waste of time.

Thanks

Jano Svitok

3/19/2008 9:39:00 AM

0

On Wed, Mar 19, 2008 at 8:06 AM, s.ross <cwdinfo@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi--
>
> A few updates to http://gemmy.calico....
>
> + Added description field if one is present. This is typically either
> blank or the same as the summary, but where it differs, it is expanded
> on demand.
> + Added more weight to gem name in an attempt to tweak full-text
> matching accuracy.
> + Removed "it just breaks" dependency on cookies.
> + Added a bit more commentary to the results count to explain why only
> 25 are shown when 2300 are found.
> + Added obligatory dumb logo.
> + Added some "help" text (as if people who need Ruby Gems need help!).
>
> The goal of this tool is to be pretty quick and pretty functional and
> pretty bare bones. Just the facts.
>
> As always, I'm interested in your comments and suggestions --
> particularly whether search is finding what you expect and whether
> help is helpful or a waste of time.

You could #uniq the version numbers and list platforms as well.

Chad Perrin

3/19/2008 7:53:00 PM

0

On Wed, Mar 19, 2008 at 04:06:01PM +0900, s.ross wrote:
> Hi--
>
> A few updates to http://gemmy.calico....
>
> + Added description field if one is present. This is typically either
> blank or the same as the summary, but where it differs, it is expanded
> on demand.
> + Added more weight to gem name in an attempt to tweak full-text
> matching accuracy.
> + Removed "it just breaks" dependency on cookies.
> + Added a bit more commentary to the results count to explain why only
> 25 are shown when 2300 are found.
> + Added obligatory dumb logo.
> + Added some "help" text (as if people who need Ruby Gems need help!).
>
> The goal of this tool is to be pretty quick and pretty functional and
> pretty bare bones. Just the facts.
>
> As always, I'm interested in your comments and suggestions --
> particularly whether search is finding what you expect and whether
> help is helpful or a waste of time.

It looks excellent.

+ Description: The way the description has been added is great. The font
is a touch small, and a way to unexpand it again after expanding might be
nice, though I suppose the unexpand isn't really important.
+ Cookies: Glad to hear it doesn't break without cookies now. Thank you.
Even though I'm accepting cookies from the site, websites that fail
without cookies bother me -- and I'm sure I'm not the only one.
+ 25 results: Are you planning to add some functionality for seeing the
rest of the results at some point, or just expect that people will refine
their searches somehow if they don't get the results they wanted?
+ Logo: I like "{ zippy graphic omitted }". Don't take my preference in
this for objective advice, though.
+ Help: In my opinion, the way you have the help text presented is
excellent. Keep it.

I tend to keep JavaScript turned on in my browser, but there are (of
course) others who do not. The fact the Gemmy Gem Browser is unusable
without JavaScript seems like an unnecessary limitation. This probably
isn't the most important problem to fix, but you might consider it for
the future, in case someone wants to use it from Lynx, or even write a
command line script in Ruby that accesses results from GGB.

I'll have to give it a more thorough going-over later to see how I like
the result sets.

Thanks for putting in the time on this.

--
CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.ap... ]
Patrick J. LoPresti: "Emacs has been replaced by a shell script which 1)
Generates a syslog message at level LOG_EMERG; 2) reduces the user's disk
quota by 100K; and 3) RUNS ED!!!!!!"

Steve Ross

3/19/2008 8:05:00 PM

0

On Mar 19, 2008, at 12:53 PM, Chad Perrin wrote:
> It looks excellent.
>
> + Description: The way the description has been added is great. The
> font
> is a touch small, and a way to unexpand it again after expanding
> might be
> nice, though I suppose the unexpand isn't really important.

>> In the queue.

>
> + Cookies: Glad to hear it doesn't break without cookies now. Thank
> you.
> Even though I'm accepting cookies from the site, websites that fail
> without cookies bother me -- and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

>> Point taken.

> + 25 results: Are you planning to add some functionality for seeing
> the
> rest of the results at some point, or just expect that people will
> refine
> their searches somehow if they don't get the results they wanted?

>> Lower in the queue. I personally feel that the more people think
>> about their question, the better their answers will be. I'll
consider
>> pagination if people think it's important

> + Logo: I like "{ zippy graphic omitted }". Don't take my
> preference in
> this for objective advice, though.

>> I had to put a dig in :)

> + Help: In my opinion, the way you have the help text presented is
> excellent. Keep it.

>> Thanks

> I tend to keep JavaScript turned on in my browser, but there are (of
> course) others who do not. The fact the Gemmy Gem Browser is unusable
> without JavaScript seems like an unnecessary limitation. This
> probably
> isn't the most important problem to fix, but you might consider it for
> the future, in case someone wants to use it from Lynx, or even write a
> command line script in Ruby that accesses results from GGB.

>> This is exposed as a REST service, so anyone can do searches via
>> a simple HTTP protocol. Pretty cool, eh?