More robust INDEXing

[Forrest Aldrich]

Slightly OT: however, there are a few programs out there that offer a 
richer indexing method (a la Google for your email).

I wonder if there's a place for that somewhere in the Cyrus structure. 
There's obvious utility in a richer search-and-find method.

I'm probably not alone with my hoard of emails, spanning many years (and 
many memories), amounting to thousands (or more!) of individual messages.

I have these all slightly organized in my Cyrus IMAP spool, which I back 
up regularly.

I find, however, that basic searches don't always work well, or are too 
slow.   Though, I admit I'm not 100% certain on how that process "works" 
- for example, I use Thunderbird presently as my email client, and I'm 
aware that Cyrus maintains its own *.index files in each directory in 
the spool.

It would be wonderful to have a richer indexing method.  That would 
likely include some integration into clients (beyond the scope of this 
discussion).

Other programs I've run into include Zoë <http://zoe.nu/>, which is 
highly specialized (ie: you must use its infrastructure), there are some 
on freshmeat.net.

I wonder what others thoughts/experiences are on this area.  Or if there 
are some other clever methods of enriching this process that I've 
overlooked.


Thanks.