RE: [search-ws] RE: sru/cql sort

[Rob Sanderson <azaroth@liverpool.ac.uk>]

On Fri, 2008-10-31 at 12:16 -0400, LeVan,Ralph wrote:
> > There MUST be a query, and that query identifies or describes a result
> > set.  Sort, as specified in CQL, is a part of that description as it
> > affects the ordering, in exactly the same way as relevance ranking
> does
> > for example.
> 
> Sure, it affects the ordering, but not the creation of the result set.
> It's just as legitimate to do the sorting after the result set creation
> as during; it's just not as convenient.

That's not correct.  If you sort a resultset you create a new resultset
as the ordering has changed.  Sort order is an inherent part of the
result set, otherwise we could reuse the identifier for a re-sorted
result set.

"Processing of a query results in the selection of a set of records,
represented by a result set maintained at the server; logically it is an
ordered list of references to the records. Once created, a result set
cannot be modified. Any operation which would somehow change a result
set instead creates a new result set."

Rob