Hi Mary Anne,

Sounds like you have more than a passing familiary with searching, and experience trying to explain it to mere mortals.

Someday computers will be good enough to parse human English correctly, but that day is far away still. No matter how well a computer can handle the mechanics of syntax and constructing sentence grammar diagrams, a computer isn't near smart enough to pick up on meaning and nuance. We're not obsolete yet. Computers make some awful mistakes trying to parse English. Some companies use automated resume-parsing systems to filter incoming resumes for the convenience of the HR clerks, and they don't work worth a damn. I submitted a resume through Yahoo's automated system, and that one at least showed me the results. From nowhere that I could see, it awarded me a Masters in English Lit, and classified me as a foreign worker because the name "Visa International" appears in my client list. The latter is deadly right now, because companies won't talk to foreign workers when they can cherry-pick American citizens (at foreign wages).

Where I'm going is to agree with you that a concise, formal search grammar is still entirely necessary; AI and "natural language processing" isn't soup yet. The definition of a grammar can be broader than just a definition of keywords in text strings. A structured data-entry form, and particularly the popular wizards that walk you through a sequence of operations, could also be classified as a type of grammar. One basic question, then, is, do you think that forms or a written search language will provide the greatest utility to the greatest number?

You made some interesting observations about the difference in meaning of "AND", "OR", and "NOT" in the real world. I guess I don't notice it because I learned Boolean logic at a very tender age. You and I must be around the same age, because California used me as a guinea pig in the second grade (around '62) to test out the "new math". It must've been a pilot program, because I distinctly remember these cheesy improvised textbooks, typewritten pages just one step above mimeographed. I suspect that if the new math had lived up to its expectations we wouldn't be having this conversation: Everybody would be able to speak Boolean as fluently as English and perform computer searches as naturally as speaking.

Just to muddy the waters further, the delightful flexibility of English does make it possible to construct true Boolean logic if you do it carefully. E.g., "You must have an income AND a good credit rating BEFORE you can buy a car". Maybe what's missing in current search grammars is a prerequisite statement like BEFORE that makes clear that ALL the preceding conditions must be satisfied. To extend the idea, "UNLESS" could fill the role of "OR" and "EXCEPT" could take the place of "NOT". To wit: "You must have an income AND a good credit rating BEFORE you can buy a car UNLESS your parents are rich". That would conventially be, what, something like "(income AND credit) OR richparents".

I hope Justin's reading this, because he volunteered to write the search script!

--Robert