searching RADSAFE archives

["M. Woo" <melissa@zelda.ehs.uiuc.edu>]

I know I'm asking for it by soliciting opinions, but here goes...

BTW, all responses should be sent to me via private e-mail at
m-woo@uiuc.edu.

Let's pretend that I'll be working on a new index/search/retrieval
mechanism for the RADSAFE mail archives rather than go outside and
enjoy the weather for the next few weekends or so.  (This is of course
PURELY hypothetical. <grin>)  The new mechanism will have a Web-based
front end from which you can input your search parameters and will
return a list of links to the (single) messages matching your search
criteria.  Clicking on a link will display the desired message.

What would you like to see as search options?

No promises, but here are some possibilities.  Keep in mind that I'd
like to keep this relatively simple for people to use (perhaps a
"simple" search page and a link to an "advanced" search page?).

boolean searches
plain and/or soundex searches
search by author
search by message subject
search by message body
search by date

There are probably more possibilities; I'm using freeWAIS as the
backend, and it's pretty flexible in how it can index the data.  The
sticking point may be in the design of the search frontend itself.

Comments/opinions/wishlists are appreciated.  Guinea pigs, er, testers
might also be useful.

Thanks in advance!

Melissa Woo
RADSAFE List-owner/manager

--
Melissa Woo, Health Physicist                    |m-woo@uiuc.edu
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign       |ofc 1.217.244.7233
DEHS, MC225, 101 S. Gregory St., Urbana, IL 61801|fax 1.217.244.6594
http://www.uiuc.edu/ph/www/m-woo                 |