Jani Nikula <jani@nikula.org> writes:

>> I don't really understand the comment on the next line (since it seems
>> that no : is added to XPROPERTY by Xapian), but I guess we should
>> probably be consistent. Maybe Jani can explain the comment?
>
> My recollection is vague, but it has to do with user-defined prefixes
> (XSOMETHING) and terms beginning with uppercase letters. I think it
> would possibly be useful (mandatory?) to append ":" at the end of
> XPROPERTY, if it's possible we'll have properties beginning with
> uppercase letters.
>
> Quoting https://xapian.org/docs/omega/termprefixes.html
>
> """
> X starts a multi-capital letter user-defined prefix. If you want a
> prefix for something without a standard prefix, you create your own
> starting with an X (e.g. XSHOESIZE). The prefix ends with the first
> non-capital. If the term you're prefixing starts with a capital, add a
> ":" between prefix and term to resolve ambiguity about where the prefix
> ends and the term begins.
> """

Well, it seems harmless (modulo the 1 extra byte) to add it.  I was
wondering if the comment (and requirement) dated back to when we added
XFOLDER: terms with some Xapian term generator, but I think I wasn't
able to verify that poking around in the history.

d