Re: Looking for: "Context 3" Information

I've been out of the Context loop for a while, but I think you have it backwords. The real product is Context. Context is the underlying linguistic search engine. It has all the charm of Oracle's OCI layer. You need to be a linguist and a C programmer to really use it. TextRetrieval is basically an application built using Context. What is lacking is a nice development environment for Context. Right now you either use Context and work like a dog or use TextRetrieval as it is out of the box.

I got a chance to interview Brett Newbold at Oracle about it all last year. (bnewbold_at_us.oracle.com) in conjunction with the IS Russia project that I help out with. My sense is that Brett's group is very good. I think that context is a first rate engine that is in search of a nice way to build text applications. They have been very visionary in building Context. The market for sophisticated document searching is just getting off the ground. Personally, I look forward to getting extensions to Forms or Power Objects(Project X) that will allow me to seamlessly build Context power into my apps.

However, not being current in this, for all I know Context3 is something entirely different. Oracle has been known to attach old names to entirely new products (e.g. Data Query). Sorry for not being able to give you a clear answer.

Paul Dorsey
Rider U Received on Mon Mar 20 1995 - 06:56:41 CST