Monday, November 13, 2017

Awkward Results May Appear (now fixed)



As I expanded the database from just Torah to include the rest of Tanach, a logical dissonance erupted in my code unnoticed until now.

Of all methods available on Home Page, a few new methods added later may yield some results, or matches, that make little sense depending on the Range parameters the user can set on Home Page.

Let’s say the user sets his Range so that he searches the entire Tanach. In other words, he sets the Start of his Range to “Bereishis” and the End of the Range to “Divrei Hayomim B”.

Now suppose he chooses the method of “Roshei Possukim”. Suppose too the last verse in one book - together with the first verse of the next book - score a match (a “hit”). Were these verses within the bounds of Torah, i.e., anywhere between the 1st and last chumash-parsha inclusive, then that’s fine. All results would make sense.

But suppose the last verse in Joshua - together with the “next” verse, which would be the first verse in the book “Shoftim” that I had juxtaposed to the Joshua book, comprise a match? What good would that result be? None from a logical standpoint. As long as juxtaposed books comprise a unit, as do the 5 Chumashim, or the pair of books Shmuel A and B (or also Melachim A and B and Divrei Hayomim A and B), then results than span across these books still can be considered worthy.

But searching say, Joshua and Shoftim, or any other juxtaposed books that are separate entities, shouldn’t show such results in the first place.

Methods like “Find a word”, “Find a Phrase” or “Bookends” still apply as before, and make full sense - no matter what range is set by the user.

But methods such as “Gematria” - run under the specific option of “successive possukim” (see image below), where multiple verses comprise the match, spanning separate books makes no sense. Similarly, the methods “Equidistant Letter Sequence”, “Roshei Possukim” and “Sofei Possukim”, where more than one possuk make up the result, spanning books ought to be prevented.

Well, I haven’t yet figured how to modify the code.

Here's an example of such an awkward match or "hit" (Options Page and Results Page are shown):

Notice the result is comprised of two verses whose gematria add up to 3828. These are the last verse in Tehillim  plus the next verse, which is the first verse in Yeshayahu! This is an awkward "hit", to be sure, and completely insignificant.

UPDATE: 1/17/18

Glad to say these changes have been made - to remove awkward results. My post dated 1/17/18 (link) explains it all.