Re: New member questions

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Hi Martin,

Thanks a lot for your reply.  I will certainly give Snowball a try.   My
use case is a simple one:  I'm the developer of MBraille, which is a
braille text editor app for smartphones.  MBraille has quite a lot of
functionality, the help text is getting long and is translated to many
languages.  So I'm thinking of providing a full text search for the help in
all languages and using snowball in that context.

Btw.  I ran into something I would think is a bug of one word in English:
knotty gets stemmed to knotti, spotty to spotti.  But knot is a knot and
spot is a spot.   I'm not sure if playing whack-a-mole for each word is
useful in generating an issue ticket in github is useful though.  I will
download the source and compile it myself to see if there is a test suite
or something where that could  be added,

Thanks again for your help and original work on snowball.

Best wishes
Harri






On Fri, Jan 24, 2025 at 11:05=E2=80=AFPM Martin Porter <martin.f.porter2@gm=
ail.com>
wrote:

> Harri,
>
> You will have to excuse me for not being completely on top of the subject
> of snowball these days, but the main work was done a quarter of a century
> ago, and I am now 80 years of age. Papers evaluating snowball were often =
a
> bit negative: that is because they were testing some new system of the
> authors with a base system, and the base system would often use snowball.
> If they outperformed the base system their paper would be published, if n=
ot
> they would hold it back and try again. There was a general paper with
> comparisons of IR with/without snowball for several languages, which put
> snowball in a much better light, but I can't quite find it at the moment.
> If I do I'll let you know. But for Finnish itself this is encouraging,
>
> http://clef.isti.cnr.it/2004/working_notes/WorkingNotes2004/16.pdf
>
> with their conclusion,
>
> "For Finnish, the performance is quite high. The snowball stemmer works
> very well."
>
> (The stemmers do not reduce words to real vocabulary words incidentally,
> just to a character string that collects variant forms together.)
>
> I think the final statement on these stemming algorithms must be that the=
y
> are a simple and inexpensive way of conflating variant forms of a word
> together, and that this can be useful in certain circumstances.
>
> Martin
>
>
>

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<div dir=3D"ltr">Hi Martin,<div><br></div><div>Thanks a lot for=C2=A0your r=
eply.=C2=A0 I will certainly give Snowball a try.=C2=A0 =C2=A0My use case=
=C2=A0is a simple one:=C2=A0 I&#39;m the developer of MBraille, which is a =
braille text editor app for smartphones.=C2=A0 MBraille has quite a lot of =
functionality, the help text is getting long and is translated to many lang=
uages.=C2=A0 So I&#39;m thinking of providing a full text search for the he=
lp in all languages=C2=A0and using snowball in that context.</div><div><br>=
Btw.=C2=A0 I ran into something I would think is a bug of one word in Engli=
sh:=C2=A0 knotty gets stemmed to knotti, spotty to spotti.=C2=A0 But knot i=
s a knot and spot is a spot.=C2=A0 =C2=A0I&#39;m not sure if playing whack-=
a-mole for each word is useful in generating an issue ticket in github is u=
seful though.=C2=A0 I will download the source and compile it myself to see=
 if there is a test suite or something where that could=C2=A0 be added,=C2=
=A0=C2=A0<br><br></div><div>Thanks again for=C2=A0your help and original wo=
rk on snowball.</div><div><br></div><div>Best wishes</div><div>Harri</div><=
div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br><br><br></div></div><br><div class=3D=
"gmail_quote gmail_quote_container"><div dir=3D"ltr" class=3D"gmail_attr">O=
n Fri, Jan 24, 2025 at 11:05=E2=80=AFPM Martin Porter &lt;<a href=3D"mailto=
:[email protected]">[email protected]</a>&gt; wrote:<br><=
/div><blockquote class=3D"gmail_quote" style=3D"margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;bo=
rder-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir=3D"ltr">Har=
ri,<br><br>You will have to excuse me for not being completely on top of th=
e subject of snowball these days, but the main work was done a quarter of a=
 century ago, and I am now 80 years of age. Papers evaluating snowball were=
 often a bit negative: that is because they were testing some new system of=
 the authors with a base system, and the base system would often use snowba=
ll. If they outperformed the base system their paper would be published, if=
 not they would hold it back and try again. There was a general paper with =
comparisons of IR with/without snowball for several languages, which put sn=
owball in a much better light, but I can&#39;t quite find it at the moment.=
 If I do I&#39;ll let you know. But for Finnish itself this is encouraging,=
 =C2=A0<br><br><a href=3D"http://clef.isti.cnr.it/2004/working_notes/Workin=
gNotes2004/16.pdf" target=3D"_blank">http://clef.isti.cnr.it/2004/working_n=
otes/WorkingNotes2004/16.pdf</a><br><br>with their conclusion,<br><br>&quot=
;For Finnish, the performance is quite high. The snowball stemmer works ver=
y well.&quot;<br><br>(The stemmers do not reduce words to real vocabulary w=
ords incidentally, just to a character string that collects variant forms t=
ogether.) <br><br>I think the final statement on these stemming algorithms =
must be that they are a simple and inexpensive way of conflating variant fo=
rms of a word together, and that this can be useful in certain circumstance=
s.<br><br>Martin<br><br><br></div>
</blockquote></div>

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