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hinv
Registered Member

Date Joined Jan 2007
Total Posts : 487

Posted 1/3/2009 6:12 PM (GMT -8)

Hi,

I hate to have to ask this again, but what is the best way to search the propeller forum again?

Could this thread or any of the other dozens on the topic be made sticky so that it is easy to find?

Thanks,
Doug

parts-man73
Registered Member

Date Joined Apr 2006
Total Posts : 791

Posted 1/3/2009 6:44 PM (GMT -8)

search.parallax.com/

or here's a link that needs to be brought up once in a while.

www.foxhollow.ca/propeller/

This second link will add a dropdown search bar to Firefox. It's a very nice feature that I have installed on both my home and work PC. This searches ONLY the Propeller forum.

Brian

uController.com - home of SpinStudio - the modular Development system for the Propeller

PropNIC - Add ethernet ability to your Propeller! PropJoy - Plug in a joystick and play some games!

SD card Adapter - mass storage for the masses Audio/Video adapter add composite video and sound to your Proto Board

Ken Gracey (Parallax)
Forum Moderator

Date Joined Jul 2004
Total Posts : 1972

Posted 1/3/2009 6:50 PM (GMT -8)

Doug,

This tool http://search.parallax.com is a big, blue, and expensive piece of Google hardware procured by our IT Guy. When it arrived I thought he had just given birth to a child. With much care he unpacked it, installed it, and it started indexing all of our resources.

Brian's tool looks useful, too.

Don't bother with the .Net BB "Search" icon in the upper right side of your screen - it's been drain bread for years already. For that matter this whole forum software is on life support and we plan on porting it to something supported in 2009.

Ken Gracey
Parallax, Inc.

johnfl68
Registered Member

Date Joined Mar 2008
Total Posts : 71

Posted 1/3/2009 7:30 PM (GMT -8)

Also, if you want to search this forum or any other forums or site, you can use the following using the main Google search engine:

propeller hydra site:forums.parallax.com

(propeller and hydra are just example key words - use whatever key word(s) or phrase as needed, ending with "site:sitename.com" changing sitename.com to the address of the site you want to search)

This works for any site or forum that has been indexed by Google.

Obviously, Ken's post above and the big blue box should work better for the parallax site.

John

Whistler: I want peace on earth and goodwill toward men.
Bernard Abbott: We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Sneakers (1992)

Cluso99
We live onboard

Date Joined Apr 2008
Total Posts : 2276

Posted 1/3/2009 7:56 PM (GMT -8)

I have found the searches next to useless. I mostly can't even find my own threads. confused

The best way is to ask general questions here as most of us keep an index of our own threads (and other useful ones) so we can usually point you on your way fairly quickly.

The links below (in my signature) will point you to an index of my threads (development tools) and it also has a link to a list done recently of all threads (in excel format and others). This way you can download the lot and search using excel offline. OBC (OldBitCollector) has a link in his signature for beginners.

Hope this helps cool

Prop Tools under Development or Completed (Index)

http://forums.parallax.com/forums/default.aspx?f=25&m=296149

[url=http://www.bluemagic.biz]cruising[/url]

This is a [b]bold[/b] test.

hinv
Registered Member

Date Joined Jan 2007
Total Posts : 487

Posted 1/3/2009 8:22 PM (GMT -8)

Hey thanks guys.

The answer I liked the best was parts-man73 propeller beanie search within firefox. Very handy.

Thanks very much.

Doug

SRLM
Registered Member

Date Joined Jul 2008
Total Posts : 2717

Posted 1/4/2009 7:16 PM (GMT -8)

I "subscribe" to any thread that I have started, and so it's very easy to quickly find the ones that I want (in most cases).

Drone
Registered Member

Date Joined Mar 2007
Total Posts : 359

Posted 1/5/2009 2:22 AM (GMT -8)

Ken said...
This tool http://search.parallax.com is a big, blue, and expensive piece of Google hardware procured by our IT Guy... he unpacked it, installed it, and it started indexing all of our resources.

With search.parallax.com, to search within a particular forum (only in the Propeller area for-example), you must use the Advanced option then manually paste the Propeller forum's URL in the box - sheesh; if the box was that expensive why isn't there a drop-down list so we can pick which forum to search within, better-yet tick boxes that allow multiple selections.

What advantage does the big, blue, and expensive piece of Google hardware have over using Google-proper? It's not immediately obvious to me.

Why did your IT person have to "index" any resources, Google' s search is supposedly semi-intelligent, I presume you would tell it where to drill and how deep, then it just automatically map-out and index your entire site. Isn't that what Google's search engine is all about? Heck put the Google box outside your LAN & firewall and point it back at your site and tell it to drill everywhere as deep as possible - this is pretty much what Google-proper does in the first place right?

I did see a post once for a link you can bookmark that would allow Google-proper to search the Propeller forum (only) with only one click. I think it used site: and inurl: or allinurl: in the google context. I don't know enough about building Google stuff to re-create it. Heck just embed a link like this in the Propeller forum header and get rid of the link to the broken search engine. You don't need the Google box Ken mentioned that way.

Whether you use the "box" at search.parallax.com or Google-proper, the results don't tell you explicitly which forum the post is in nor where the post is in the thread, you can't group by threads either. This is why application-specific search engines are so superior to Google for forums and wikis. Too bad the Parallax search engine has been broken so long. Perhaps it would have been a lot less expensive to put a bounty up for fixing the search engine rather than fork-out for the Google hardware. Or maybe the forum software used here is not Open Source and now unsupported? If so - that's explains a lot...

Rgds, David

ratronic
Tinkin Around

Date Joined Oct 2006
Total Posts : 152

Posted 1/5/2009 8:30 AM (GMT -8)

I just use

http://search.parallax.com and in the searchbox type in the word(s) you want then a space then f=25 and hit enter!

Fix it, if it ain't broke

D Rat

Dave Ratcliff N6YEE

mikediv
Registered Member

Date Joined Dec 2007
Total Posts : 455

Posted 1/5/2009 3:39 PM (GMT -8)

Hey Cluso99 I thought it was just me but I can not get the search to work worth a darn. even if I tell it to search all forums for anydate and try to find stuff about the prop chip and lcd like propellor, lcd, interface it tells me it finds nothing ???? I love this fourm a better search function would be awesome since it seems to bother some members if you ask the same questions to many times you get back stuff like "just do a search" ok I would/did but found nothing.. anyway just venting love this place but search could use some help

rjo_
Registered Member

Date Joined Feb 2007
Total Posts : 1572

Posted 1/5/2009 10:12 PM (GMT -8)

Not OT... but slightly askew of your question:

When I see something I don't understand but which I know is going to be important, I save the thread to disk... then when I actually need the info, I use my computer's search tools to find the thread... works great.

The only problem is not knowing how important something is that I don't understand.

Another approach is to read the entire forum... from beginning to end. This used to be easy until Chip asked whether we wanted more RAM or bigger cogs...

I recently took a month off...At the present rate, going back and reading what I missed is going to take me a month... at which time I will still be a month behind:)

Another approach is to assume that everything that can be discussed has been discussed and if you can't find it... you really should ask... this works just about every time.

I would love to be able to obtain the entire forum contents on disk...

Cluso99
We live onboard

Date Joined Apr 2008
Total Posts : 2276

Posted 1/6/2009 12:36 AM (GMT -8)

@mikediv: My experience too. I have had trouble even finding my own threads (which is why I now keep my own index).

When I started on the prop, I read most of the threads. Problem was I couldn't find them later when I wanted something.

There is an Excel list which is a downloadable thread index and done by someone (sorry I can't recall who) about a month ago. It is in my thread index in my signature below.

However, I was using the Advanced Google Search. I just tried the http://search.parallax.com search and it brought up what I was after (simple search). So maybe this might resolve the problem.

This forum is fantastic, but don't miss it for a few days as it takes too long to catch up :-(

Prop Tools under Development or Completed (Index)

http://forums.parallax.com/forums/default.aspx?f=25&m=296149

[url=http://www.bluemagic.biz]cruising[/url]

This is a [b]bold[/b] test.

StefanL38
Registered Member

Date Joined Sep 2006
Total Posts : 957

Posted 1/6/2009 2:10 AM (GMT -8)

Hello,

I made a short test with http://search.parallax.com/

keywords "f=25 StefanL38" (which is my login name)
and I think it found ALL posts (1950 hits)

using www.google.de did find only 234 hits and most of them were when I was online but not related to my postings

best regards

Stefan

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