Verity and default delimiters

[Walt Howe]

Janet Kaul wrote:

> Our company has just purchased Verity search systems (we have been
> using Fulcrum).
>
> While I like most of the functions Verity provides, I am unhappy with
> the fact that the default delimiter between search terms is a comma.
> If you put spaces, a phrase is assumed.
>
> This means retraining all of our users, or else changing the default
> delimiter (which my engineer tells me is not easy).
>
> Has anyone else using Verity done usability surveys to indicate
> if the comma is at all intuitive acceptable? Any stories I can take
> to my management to convince them a change in delimiters is necessary?
>
> Or maybe to show me that it isn't?

I first used comma delimiters with DBase2 on an Apple 2 under CP/M. I've
used it ever since with various other software and platforms, and it
certainly is the most common form of delimiting. I've used other forms,
too, but it is really the least common denominator of delimitation. I
don't know if you'd call it intuitive or not, but nothing is more
common.

  Walt <http://people.delphi.com/walthowe/>