Strigidaemon

[Robert Knight]

Hi,

> Can't "we" make a popup that is relatively self-explanatory
> and "gentle"?

I think that suggestion is a band-aid to patch over technical problems
with Strigi.    

As a general purpose search tool it has a number of problems.  I think
distributions would be hard push to ship it out of the box until they
are fixed.
These are based on the last time I looked at the code a few months ago
so please, correct me if I am wrong on any of these points.

- It is designed for fast indexing over low system impact.    
- Designed for manual configuration (instead of Spotlight, Vista's
indexer, Beagle, Tracker etc. which are all configurable to some extent
but are designed to work well with no/minimal setup)
- 3rd party plugins are implemented in native code and correct me if I
am wrong but they run in the strigidaemon process so the daemon cannot
easily control them if they run amok.  Some examples are KOffice Strigi
plugins which tried to parse all XML files they encountered into
QDomDocuments (using vast amounts of memory in the process) and the diff
analyser which is not very efficient.
- Strigi doesn't log its activities so it cannot remember to ignore
files which cause problems or disable plugins which aren't working well.
- The kernel's inotify doesn't really meet the needs of system-wide
indexers.  I know that Apple had to make kernel-level changes to support
Spotlight and I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft did as well.    

If you see Strigi not as a general purpose search tool but a replacement
for lucene/updatedb then some of these points don't apply.  The last
point is outside of Strigi as a project but the first few items are very
much in its remit.

Regards,
Robert.

On Tue, 2008-04-01 at 10:58 -0400, Randy Kramer wrote:
> On Tuesday 01 April 2008 03:48 am, Louai Al-Khanji wrote:
> > Having dialogs pop up at unsuspecting users is not very nice. :)  I think 
> most 
> > users will not know what they are configuring, and especially not _why_ they 
> > are configuring it. IMHO it would be better to have a default configuration 
> > that suits most people, and provide a (convenient) way to tailor strigi 
> > settings for power users.
> 
> IMHO, having some program start running, using lots of my cpu and memory (I'm 
> thinking back to kat, but is any indexing program much better?), is worse 
> than a one-time (unless you request to be reminded) popup that tells me there 
> is an application named strigi whicht will be started by default (at each 
> boot?)  and will index such and such directories by default unless I change 
> the configuration now (or later, by asking to be reminded).
> 
> Aside: Have the usability people weighed in on this?  (Or been asked?)
> 
> This popup occurs either during installation or the first time a user logs in 
> (or something along those lines), not every time the user logs in.
> 
> Can't "we" make a popup that is relatively self-explanatory and "gentle"?
> 
> Trying a first draft (for the first time it pops up).
> 
> '
> Hi!
> 
> This popup explains something you might want to know about how search can be 
> speeded up on this machine.  If you don't have the time or interest for this, 
> click "Continue" or "Let's discuss this later" (maybe giving the user choices 
> of: 
>    * next time I boot up
>    * when I get ready for shut down
>    * an hour (or x hours, allowing reasonable fractions, like 1/4, 1/2, 3/4) 
> from now 
> )
> 
> This installation of KDE includes a program named Strigi(daemon) which will 
> index selected directories on your computer so that searches can be much 
> faster.  ("can be" trying to imply (assuming that it is true) that ordinary 
> greps and finds are not speeded up by the Strigi indexes--maybe we [can | 
> have to] say "searches using the Strigi search tool are much faster"?)
> 
> If you click on "Continue" (best word?--Hmm, maybe "Enable Strigi" is better, 
> and can be "highlighted" as the default), Strigi will index your home 
> directory immediately and each time you log in (if this is true, or each 
> night, or whatever is true), but (if this is true) with a lowered priority 
> (using the Linux "nice" system) to minimize the impact to your system.
> 
> Note that any indexing program does use system resources and can slow down 
> your machine at times--we've designed Strigi to be as unobtrusive as possible 
> (if true, or some other line that is true).
> 
> If you want to review (and possibly change) the options available for Strigi, 
> click on "Configure".
> 
> If you don't want Strigi to run on this computer, click on "Disable 
> Strigi" (with an option to "Remind me Later", and again with the options for 
> in one hour (or x hours), at shutdown, at next boot).
> 
> If you want Strigi to run in its default configuration, click "Continue" (or 
> "Enable Strigi") (again, maybe giving an option to "Remind me (or "Let's 
> discuss this) Later", and again with the options for in one hour (or x 
> hours?), at shutdown, at next boot).
> '
> Randy Kramer