[Xapian-discuss] Perl XS Search::Xapian missing WritableDatabase::add_spelling?

[Olly Betts]

On Thu, Nov 06, 2008 at 04:20:09PM +0200, Henka wrote:
> I may be mistaken, but it looks like the Perl CPAN module  
> Search::Xapian is missing method WritableDatabase::add_spelling, even  
> though you can set FLAG_SPELLING_CORRECTION in  
> QueryParser::parse_query to perform spelling checks on search terms.
> 
> Are there any plans in the pipeline to plug this hole?

Currently Search::Xapian is hand-coded in XS, so adding wrappers for new
API features requires that the XS wrapper is written.  Sometimes
fiddling is needed, but often you just need to write an XS prototype.
Then a simple testcase is really needed so we know the new wrapper
actually works, and that it won't get broken by further changes.

I try to get new stuff wrapped promptly, but sometimes I'm busy and
sometimes I just miss stuff.  Search::Xapian tends to lag a little
behind the other bindings, where wrapping is pretty much automatic
thanks to SWIG.  Test cases are still very desirable for these too,
though not as essential for simple additions as the code is completely
auto-generated so there's less scope for stupid typos stopping it
working, and if it works in one language, it's very likely to work for
them all.

If there are methods that you particularly need, I'm very happy to
receive patches (and for something like add_spelling(), it's not hard
to do even if you don't know XS - you usually just need to modify
XS/<classname>.xs and can find a similar method to copy from).  Ideally
the patch should add test coverage too.

I'd like to move Search::Xapian to SWIG, but SWIG doesn't currently
calling back from C++ to Perl (though someone is working on that).

Cheers,
    Olly