Re: using Tsearch2 for chemical text

> I think you might need to write a custom lexer to divide the strings
> into meaningful units.  If there are subsections of these names that
> make sense to search for, then tsearch2 can certainly handle the
> mechanics of that, but I doubt that the standard rules will divide
> these names into lexemes usefully.

A custom lexer for tsearch2 that recognized chemistry related lexical
components (di-, tetra-, acetyl-, ethan-, -oic, -ane, -ene etc) would
increase *hugely* the out-of-the-box applicability of PostgreSQL to
scientific applications. Perhaps such an effort could be co ordinated
with a physics based lexer and biology related lexer, to perhaps provide
a unified lexer that provided full scientific capabilities in the way
that PostGIS provides unified geospatial capabilities.

I don't know how best to bring such an effort about, but I do know that
if such a thing were created it would be a boon for PostgreSQL, giving
it a very significant leg up in terms of functionality, not to mention
the great positive impact that the wide, free availability of such a
tool would have on the scientific research community.