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More => Old Versions => JRiver Media Center 18 for Windows => Topic started by: chrisjj on April 22, 2013, 03:04:58 pm

Title: How to avoid accent loss on searches?
Post by: chrisjj on April 22, 2013, 03:04:58 pm
It seems accents get lost from search terms, e.g. a search for á returns matches on a:

(http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/724/regionn.png)

Anyone know how to avoid this? Thanks.

EDIT: FTR, the same occurs on Smartlists e.g.

(http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/7311/regionhk.png)

but not on the media tree and panes:

(http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/723/regionme.png)

and not in expression functions e.g.

(http://img837.imageshack.us/img837/8906/regionzt.png)
Title: Re: How to avoid accent loss on searches?
Post by: JimH on April 22, 2013, 03:07:09 pm

Searches ignore the accents.
Title: Re: How to avoid accent loss on searches?
Post by: chrisjj on April 22, 2013, 03:10:02 pm
Yes indeed - that's the problem I am reporting. If anyone has a workaround, please do say.
Title: Re: How to avoid accent loss on searches?
Post by: Matt on April 22, 2013, 03:13:41 pm
It's intentional and not configurable.
Title: Re: How to avoid accent loss on searches?
Post by: chrisjj on April 22, 2013, 03:33:00 pm
It's ... not configurable.

OK, thanks. I'll hope you'll reconsider this, esp. since it is inconsistent with the pane and tree behaviour (both retain accent significance) and even goes so far as to drop a diacritic that is not an accent but a part of the glyph of a distinct letter of the alphabet:

(http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/7377/regionsk.png)

Thanks.
Title: Re: How to avoid accent loss on searches?
Post by: JimH on April 22, 2013, 03:36:12 pm
They are very commonly mis-spelled.  Think of this as a "fuzzy" search.
Title: Re: How to avoid accent loss on searches?
Post by: Matt on April 22, 2013, 03:38:12 pm
If anything, I'd like search to be more forgiving.

In my library, 'Bob Dylan' is the first suggestion if you type 'dilan'.  I like that.

Expect no changes here.
Title: Re: How to avoid accent loss on searches?
Post by: chrisjj on April 22, 2013, 03:41:32 pm
In my library, 'Bob Dylan' is the first suggestion if you type 'dilan'.  I like that.

I guess wouldn't like that if you had an artist named dilan.
Title: Re: How to avoid accent loss on searches?
Post by: JimH on April 22, 2013, 03:42:09 pm
It would depend how wel I could spel.
Title: Re: How to avoid accent loss on searches?
Post by: chrisjj on April 22, 2013, 03:42:39 pm
They are very commonly mis-spelled. 

Yet the tree and panes don't treat them as mis-spellings.
Title: Re: How to avoid accent loss on searches?
Post by: JimH on April 22, 2013, 03:45:08 pm
Never give up the good fight.

(http://chekesitto0.webs.com/don-quixote.jpg)
Title: Re: How to avoid accent loss on searches?
Post by: chrisjj on April 22, 2013, 03:45:23 pm
It would depend how wel I could spel.

:)

Well, I'll hope for the day MC's userbase contain sufficient people who can spell to justify a [ ] Disable spell correction checkbox :)

Thanks for the explanation.
Title: Re: How to avoid accent loss on searches?
Post by: MrC on April 22, 2013, 05:38:00 pm
I guess wouldn't like that if you had an artist names dilan.

Are you sure you won't reconsider wanting fuzzy search always enabled?!   :)
Title: Re: How to avoid accent loss on searches?
Post by: Matt on April 22, 2013, 07:12:08 pm
I think we've entered dead horse territory here, but I don't consider "Ruben Gonzales" a mis-spelling of "Rubén Gonzáles".

If I typed "Ruben Gonzales" and the program showed me nothing, I'd be confused.  If I actually had to type the accents, I would have to launch Character Map to search for him because I have no idea how to type an accent character like that.  Even if this makes me an idiot (likely), I can't be the only one.
Title: Re: How to avoid accent loss on searches?
Post by: chrisjj on April 22, 2013, 07:42:24 pm
I don't consider "Ruben Gonzales" a mis-spelling of "Rubén Gonzáles".

Matt, I respectfully suggest that's because your Spanish spelling is not great. To someone with good Spanish spelling writing in Spanish, it is a spelling mistake.

And it makes a big difference elsewhere in Media Center E.g. Ángel entered as Angel in 'Artist' puts him at the opposite end of an alphabetic sort.

I think it's fine that Media Center makes some searches easier for people who don't care about accents. But I think it is not fine that it makes some searches impossible for people who do care about accents, and have no problem typing them because they type Spanish every day. So I hope you'll put on the wishlist the option to turn off this accent stripping.

If I actually had to type the accents, I would have to launch Character Map to search for him because I have no idea how to type an accent character like that.

Just hold Alt Gr while you type the letter.
Title: Re: How to avoid accent loss on searches?
Post by: MrC on April 22, 2013, 07:50:46 pm
I'm with Matt here.  I don't need to know every diacritic, accent, and any of the other bazillions of characters outside my native character set to find artists like Björk, Řystein Sevĺg and Rubén Gonzáles.  Neither does Google.  Take a look at the attached.  This is the way it should work.

Even the Apple Character Viewer helps me discover these by just entering the non-adorned character.
Title: Re: How to avoid accent loss on searches?
Post by: Matt on April 22, 2013, 07:54:19 pm
Just hold Alt Gr while you type the letter.

Gringo keyboards don't have that key.
Title: Re: How to avoid accent loss on searches?
Post by: chrisjj on April 22, 2013, 07:58:05 pm
Gringo keyboards don't have that key.
Some do, some don't.

(http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/3778/regiondw.png)
Title: Re: How to avoid accent loss on searches?
Post by: chrisjj on April 22, 2013, 08:05:21 pm
Rubén Gonzáles.

Rubén González.

Or should s match z, for people who don't care about the difference? :)

I don't need to know every diacritic, accent, and any of the other bazillions of characters outside my native character set to find artists like Björk

No-one is proposing you should.
Title: Re: How to avoid accent loss on searches?
Post by: MrC on April 22, 2013, 08:09:32 pm
You're missing the point and arguing unimportant details.  The goal is to help ALL people find music quickly and easily, not only those that know magic, have magic keyboards, or enjoy pedantic pursuits.
Title: Re: How to avoid accent loss on searches?
Post by: chrisjj on April 22, 2013, 08:15:02 pm
The goal is to help ALL people find music quickly and easily

Well, unfortunately it's not working for ALL people when we get a load of false matches mixed in with the true ones. That makes it slower and harder to find the music I want.

It also prevents me finding spelling mistakes. I should be able to manually search for missing accents or set up a Smartlist for that. I can't, because MC includes all the correct spelling in the results.

And note that if you try your dropping accents trick on other areas of Media Center, it doesn't work e.g. in the tree and artist panes. It would be insane for them to drop ignore and you can't have it both ways.
Title: Re: How to avoid accent loss on searches?
Post by: JimH on April 22, 2013, 09:15:57 pm
I'm locking this now.