Keith van Rijsbergen, The Geometry of Information Retrieval

摘要

Perhaps with a nod to Galileo (1914) Keith van Rijsbergen, a noted authority, and the academic progenitor of an amazing number of important contributors to the field of Information Retrieval, begins this work with a delightful prologue. It is a "discussion" between himself ("K") and two other individuals identified only as "B" and "N", who are both skeptical about his ideas. Since he wields the pen, he is able to move them some distance during the discussion, but is not able to persuade them completely. I compliment the author on capturing much of the speech and manner of one of the leaders of our field, who responds to the argument with brief, pointed and practical questions. I have scratched my head over the identity of the other participant. There are two individuals who come to mind, but neither of them has, in my own experience, been willing to make his responses as short as those presented here, nor would either of them end a discussion of this type by proposing to "have some coffee".