Installing and Testing IRF

Dependencies

IRF requires that Java SDK 2 be installed and accessible via your PATH. IRF was developed and tested with Java 2 SDK, Standard Edition (1.2.1_04) Production Release for Solaris Solaris SPARC[tm] Platform Edition*: English. Java 2 SDK is available from: http://java.sun.com/products/jdk/1.2/index.html.

Installation

1. Use jar (we suggest, as a non-superuser) to unbundle the IRF 0.1 distribution file - creating and filling the delivery tree in whatever is the current directory when jar is run (referred to in what follows as DISTRIBUTION_ROOT). The tree contains a hierarchy of directories which contain the various Java source, class, and html files for the IRF packages.

   jar -xf irfpkg.jar

2. Add: DISTRIBUTION_ROOT/irfpkg/classes to your CLASSPATH environment variable.

Testing

1. Change to the irfapps directory. This is important only because "noinput" mode refers to data relative to this directory. Indexes and IRF management data will be stored in the current directory in files with names starting with "DB".

   cd DISTRIBUTION_ROOT/irfpkg/gov/nist/nlpir/irfapps

2. Run the sample application once. This command indexes the first 20 documents from the HCI collection (bib1000), performs a search (q1), displays the result set, and shows the mostly highly ranked document.

   java gov.nist.nlpir.irfapps.SampleApp noinput

   You should see the following if things are working as they should.

   Support.setPromptUser(false);
   Converting raw documents...
   Adding indexing features to all appropriate indexes a document at a time...
   Updating indexes...
   Presenting index statistics for current collection...
   Presenting statistics for titleindex...
     Nr of sources: 20
     Nr of features: 80
     Nr of indexing features: 120
   Presenting statistics for authorindex...
     Nr of sources: 20
     Nr of features: 20
     Nr of indexing features: 20
   Presenting statistics for docAbstractindex...
     Nr of sources: 20
     Nr of features: 547
     Nr of indexing features: 1475
   Retrieving...
   Presenting result in brief format (14 documents)...
   1: (1.000) Modelling User Behaviour with Formal Grammar
   2: (0.135) Three Transition Network Dialogue Management Systems
   3: (0.109) Towards a Task Model of Messaging: An Example of the Application of TAKD to
   User Interface Design
   4: (0.097) User Modelling Techniques for Interactive Systems
   5: (0.090) Abstract Models of Interactive Systems
   6: (0.053) Effects of System and Knowledge Variables on a Task Component of
   "Teleshopping"
   7: (0.050) Use of Man-Modelling CAD Systems by the Ergonomist
   8: (0.041) SUSI -- A Smart User-System Interface
   9: (0.040) The Interactive Process Scheduler
   10: (0.036) Definitive Notations for Interaction
   11: (0.035) Analysing the Learning of Command Sequences in a Menu System
   12: (0.032) GUIDE: A UNIX-Based Dialogue Design System
   13: (0.031) Helping Both the Novice and Advanced User in Menu-Driven Information
   Retrieval Systems
   14: (0.025) Evaluating the Human Interface of a Data Entry System: User Choice and
   Performance Measures Yield Different Tradeoff Functions
   Presenting selected document (1)...
   * Displaying a gov.nist.nlpir.irfapps.hci.HciDoc: 
   title(gov.nist.nlpir.irf.de.ProxyDeString):  <em>Modelling</em> <em>User</em> <em>Behaviou
   r</em> with <em>Formal</em> <em>Gramma</em>r,
   author(gov.nist.nlpir.irf.de.ProxyDePersonName): Name: Fountain
   First name: A. J.
   
   docAbstract(gov.nist.nlpir.irf.de.ProxyDeHtml):  <em>Formal</em> <em>descriptive</em> <em>
   tools</em> have been used to specify user behaviour at the
   human-computer interface.  Two prominent examples of this approach are the <em>GOMS</em>
   Theory (Card et al, 1983) and Reisner's <em>Formal</em> Grammar (Reisner 1981, 1984). 
   The <em>GOMS</em> Theory and <em>Formal</em> Grammar are shown to be equivalent in their p
   ower of
   describing use of an interface.  Both <em>GOMS</em> and <em>Formal</em> Grammar describe h
   uman
   behaviour in Backus Normal Form.  <em>GOMS</em> has a stack discipline for organising
   the relationships between a user's Goals and Methods; <em>Formal</em> Grammar of Reisner
   (1981, 1984) has the more general production rule control structure for
   organising the hierarchy of grammatical symbols.  Differences are shown in
   their use as analytic <em>tools</em>.  The <em>GOMS</em> Theory directs attention towards 
   the
   selection of methods for predefined tasks and the points at which this
   selection occurs.  The <em>Formal</em> Grammar does not consider method selection but
   determines the complexity of both physical and cognitive operations in
   pre-defined tasks.  It is suggested that the approaches need to be combined in
   order to provide a more comprehensive <em>formal</em> method for modelling user
   behaviour.,
   Shutting down the IR Manager...
   

   Indexes and IRF management data will be stored in the current directory in files with names starting with "DB".

   This is just meant as a simple test. For more information about running the sample application see the chapter on using IRF as-is with the sample application