Software for information storage and retrieval tested, evaluated and compared Part IV — Indexing and full‐text retrieval programs

In this article, the fourth in a series on microcomputer software for information storage and retrieval, test results of six indexing and full‐text retrieval programs are presented and various properties and qualities of these programs are discussed. The common feature of programs in these categories is that they are primarily meant to retrieve words (or combinations of them) in large text files. To do this they either simply index existing text files in one or more formats (indexing programs), or they store and index them in their own database format (full‐text retrieval programs). The programs reviewed in this issue are the indexing programs Ask‐It, Texplore and ZYindex and the full‐text retrieval programs KAware, TextMaster and WordCruncher. All programs run under MS‐DOS. In addition ZYindex has a Windows and a Unix version and TextMaster is also available for Unix. For each of the six programs almost 100 facts and test results are tabulated. The programs are also discussed individually.