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<p>The <a href="IBM" title="IBM">IBM</a> <b>Storage and Information Retrieval System</b>, better known by the acronym <b>STAIRS</b>, was a program providing storage and online <a href="Full-text_search" title="Full-text search">free-text search</a> of text data. STAIRS ran under the <a href="OS/360_and_successors" title="OS/360 and successors">OS/360</a> operating system under the <a href="CICS" title="CICS">CICS</a> or <a href="IBM_Information_Management_System" title="IBM Information Management System">IMS</a> transaction monitors, and supported <a href="IBM_3270" title="IBM 3270">IBM 3270</a> display terminals.<sup id="cite_ref-GenInfo_1-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-GenInfo-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>

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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="History">History</h2></div>

<p>STAIRS was introduced as a product in 1973, but had previously been developed in-house by IBM in support of its <a href="History_of_IBM#1969:_Antitrust.2C_the_Unbundling_of_software_and_services" title="History of IBM">antitrust lawsuit</a> in 1969. Originally the product was called simply STAIRS but, with the advent of IBM's "<a href="Virtual_memory" title="Virtual memory">/Virtual Storage</a>" operating systems (such as <a href="OS/VS1" title="OS/VS1">OS/VS1</a>), the non-CMS versions were later renamed to STAIRS/VS.

</p><p>STAIRS was initially released as an application running under <a href="IBM_Information_Management_System" title="IBM Information Management System">IMS</a> and <a href="CICS" title="CICS">CICS</a>, but a <a href="VM_(operating_system)" title="VM (operating system)">VM/CMS</a> implementation was developed by IBM Canada in the late 1970s and marketed mostly in Europe, called STAIRS/CMS.<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>

</p><p>STAIRS was succeeded by IBM SearchManager/370 and SearchManager/2 in 1991, and was discontinued in 1992, with support ceasing in 1994.<sup id="cite_ref-ProdAnn_3-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-ProdAnn-3"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>3<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>

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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Description">Description</h2></div>

<p>STAIRS queries were formulated as <a href="Boolean_algebra" title="Boolean algebra">boolean expressions</a> of desired terms. In addition to the normal boolean functions of AND, OR, and NOT, STAIRS recognized such modifiers as <i>adjacent to</i> or <i>in the same paragraph as</i>. Plain text documents could also contain so-called <i>formatted fields</i>, which could be used for additional selection. These might contain fixed information such as a date or state name.

</p><p>A powerful feature was that queries could be saved and re-executed. Queries could also be extended; for example, by specifying the result of previous query five AND an additional search term.

</p><p>When search results were displayed for the user, 3270 highlighting was used to emphasize occurrences of search terms.

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<p>STAIRS was used in-house by organizations such as large corporations and government agencies<sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-4"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> with large collections of unstructured documents. It was also bundled by database providers as a subscription service.<sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>

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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Technical_details">Technical details</h2></div>

<p>STAIRS provided good search performance by indexing every word in a document except user-selectable <i>stop words</i>, usually common words such as "and" or "the."

</p><p>Two levels of index were used, a <i>dictionary</i> containing one occurrence of each word, and an <i>inverted text</i> file storing document identification and position information for each occurrence of each word. The actual document text was stored in a third <i>text</i> file.

</p><p>STAIRS document databases could only be updated <a href="Online_and_offline" title="Online and offline">off-line</a>. The data (in the non-CMS implementations) was stored in <i><a href="Basic_direct_access_method" title="Basic direct access method">basic direct access method</a></i> (BDAM) files, which caused upgrade and portability problems later in its life-cycle.

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<ul><li><a href="BRS/Search" title="BRS/Search">BRS/Search</a></li>

<li><a href="Mistral_(software)" title="Mistral (software)">Mistral (software)</a></li></ul>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2></div>

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</style><cite id="CITEREFIBM_Corporation" class="citation book cs1">IBM Corporation. <i>STAIRS/VS General Information Manual(GH12-5114)</i>.</cite></span>

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<li id="cite_note-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-2">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite id="CITEREFIBM_Corporation1997" class="citation web cs1">IBM Corporation (2 January 1997). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/cgi-bin/ssialias?infotype=dd&subtype=sm&appname=ShopzSeries&htmlfid=897/ENUS5740-XR1">"5740-XR1 IBM Storage and Information Retrieval System/Virtual Storage (STAIRS/VS OS/VS and PC)"</a><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">September 26,</span> 2012</span>.</cite></span>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-ProdAnn-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-ProdAnn_3-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite id="CITEREFIBM_Corporation2010" class="citation web cs1">IBM Corporation (2 February 2010). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/cgi-bin/ssialias?infotype=dd&subtype=sm&appname=ShopzSeries&htmlfid=897/ENUS5695-070">"5695-070; IBM SearchManager/370 CICS/MVS or VM V1.3; IBM United States Sales Manual; Revised: February 02, 2010"</a><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">July 17,</span> 2018</span>.</cite></span>

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<li id="cite_note-4"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-4">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation news cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=r8A3NPA-6psC&dq=IBM+STAIRS%2FVS&pg=PA33">"OLIS: A Powerful New Tool for Legislatures"</a>. <i>Computerworld</i>. October 31, 1977<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">September 24,</span> 2012</span>.</cite></span>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-5"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-5">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation news cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=X_3_D4RqzvIC&dq=IBM+STAIRS%2FVS&pg=PA14">"STAIRS steps up information retrieval"</a>. <i>Computerworld</i>. June 18, 1975<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">September 24,</span> 2012</span>.</cite></span>

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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="External_links">External links</h2></div>

<ul><li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/cgi-bin/ssialias?infotype=dd&subtype=sm&appname=ShopzSeries&htmlfid=897/ENUS5740-XR1">5740-XR1 IBM Storage and Information Retrieval System/Virtual Storage (STAIRS/VS OS/VS and PC)</a></li>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/cgi-bin/ssialias?infotype=dd&subtype=sm&appname=ShopzSeries&htmlfid=897/ENUS5695-070">5695-070 IBM SearchManager/370 CICS/MVS or VM V1.3</a></li></ul></div><div><div class="zim-footer">

This article is issued from <a class="external text" title="Last edited on 2023-05-19" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/?title=IBM_STAIRS&oldid=1155753702">Wikipedia</a>. The text is available under <a class="external text" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en">Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0</a> unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

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