My environment of choice is Python. I've used solr before but for a project a while back I used the pure Python Whoosh http://packages.python.org/Whoosh/ http

My environment of choice is Python. I've used solr before but for a project a while back I used the pure Python Whoosh http://packages.python.org/Whoosh/ http://packages.python.org/Whoosh/ The intention was to quickly develop the extra search pieces needed in Python and then port them to solr. (For example we needed a custom scoring mechanism, and needed to experiment with spelling errors, pronunciation equivalency etc). However Whoosh turned out performant enough that I didn't need to touch solr again (XML config files always make me judder!) So if you Python, I strong recommend giving Whoosh a go especially when starting out a project as you'll be more productive.