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Looking at that, I get the impression that the story is: - someone introduced the term "inverted file" for this sort of thing (which is sensible terminology)
by mjw1007 5y ago
Looking at that, I get the impression that the story is:
- someone introduced the term "inverted file" for this sort of thing (which is sensible terminology)
- later people started considering these things to be a sort of database index
- so they started saying "inverted index" without paying attention to what that implies as an English phrase
- pvg 5y agoI don't think that's the story, again, I think you're overemphasizing a particular kind of book index you're familiar with. Here's usage of 'direct' and 'inverted' index from 1903 that I just googled up https://books.google.com/books?id=O0AwAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA422&dq=%22%22+inverted+index+%22%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwib2a-b1uDzAhXE854KHcaGB74QuwV6BAhBEAc#v=onepage&q=%22%22%20inverted%20index%20%22%22&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=O0AwAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA422&dq=%...
- mjw1007 5y agoThat's an index of deeds, and the distinction there is that "direct" is indexed by the grantor and "inverted" is indexed by grantee. I don't think that's the same thing at all.
- pvg 5y agoI think it shows quite clearly that your theory that Information Retrieval nerds just got confused/misapplied a particular kind of book index is inaccurate and that IR nerds have been around for longer than one might think.