Indexing for Mac users (???)

[warrenc]

Hi:

I'm a Mac user who's creating his first site. I want a site search feature for it. WRENsoft was recommended, but my review of its FAQs confuses me. It says Mac-platform users can work with WRENsoft. It also says that indexing is not currently available to Macs. I have no idea what indexing does/provides. Could someone please help a Web newbie understand the purpose and value of indexing?

Thanks. If you're a Mac user, please also weigh in regarding how well you like WRENsoft and how easy it is to use.

Many thanks, all.

Warren

[David]

There are two parts to the software. The indexer and the search scripts.

You need to run the indexer at least once to create a set of index file. The search script are run each time there is a seach performed on the web site.

The indexer is Windows only software. However once you have made a set of index files you can run the scripts on just about any machine. Unix, Linux, Windows, Mac, etc...

Some of our users have had success with running Zoom Indexer on a Mac with Virtual PC 6.1 for Mac. But Virtual PC doesn't really work as fast or as well as a real Windows PC.

So it isn't the perfect Mac solution. But most Mac houses seem to have an old Windows machine sitting around for stuff like this.

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David

[warrenc]

Indexing for Macv Users (???)

Thanks for your prompt and understandable e-reply.

Until indexing is made available for Mac world folk like me, I'll pass on WRENsoft.

Might you know if and when WRENsoft plans to accept those 5% of us in Mac world? [ ;+}

Thanks again, David.

[David]

We have no plans for a Mac version of the indexer at the moment.

The indexer is actually a complicated piece of software. A Mac version would probably be about 6 to 12 months development work. And with Macs only being 5% of the market and the product being a niche product, we estimate that it would take 33.5 years to recover our investment. Unless we dramatically increased the price of the Mac version.

I have long held the view that Apple should give away some hardware and maybe cash grants to a few key software development companies. Because until they hit around 15% market share only the mass market applications will be released on the Mac. It would only take maybe $15K and a couple of free Mac boxes to make moving our application to the Mac look economical

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David

[See Flat]

Zoom Indexer on Mac

Just for folks a bit scared to run this on Macs. I'm using Parallel's Desktop Emulator on a Macbook pro. Zoom indexer works perfectly, and it is just as fast as on a windows box with the same processor.

Cheers

[Wordmixheld]

It's simply hard on mac, but with some time it's working.

[Ray]

We are pleased to announce that we now have a public release of Zoom Search Engine For Mac. You can download this alpha release from here:
http://www.wrensoft.com/zoom/v7osx.html


You can finally configure and index your search engine from your Mac without the need of a Windows machine.