Remove temlate interface searchKnn

[orrorcol]

In issue #146, i add a templae interface

hnswlib/hnswlib/hnswlib.h

Lines 74 to 76 in 3c6a84f

	template <typename Comp>
	std::vector<std::pair<dist_t, labeltype>> searchKnn(const void*, size_t, Comp) {
	}

But it cannot be overrided. So I removed the template and make it a virtual function.

[orrorcol]

Why is this pr not merged?

[yurymalkov]

Thanks for the PR! And sorry for an extremely late response.
One thing it seems it breaks the bruteforce C++ code (we do not have tests for it). This can be easily fixed by moving the function to the interface (as it does not depend on the algorithm).
Secondly, I think having two methods with the same name, but different semantics is not a good move. I think renaming the function to explicitly represent the difference knnSearchFillCloserFirst might help with that.

[orrorcol]

Thank you for your reply. So we should only keep the following interface

hnswlib/hnswlib/hnswlib.h

Line 73 in 2571bdb

virtual std::priority_queue<std::pair<dist_t, labeltype >> searchKnn(const void *, size_t) const = 0;

And add interfaces like knnSearchFillCloserFirst.
Am I right?

[yurymalkov]

Yes. That would work!
It would be nice if the interface would have the same semantics (input, output types)

[orrorcol]

@yurymalkov which interface do you prefer. One returns a vector while another returns a priority_queue.

[yurymalkov]

Hi @uestc-lfs , after some thinking I agree the vector option should be actually better as it is more flexible and can be used both ways by the user.
Probably even a single order option would be enough for practical applications (CloserFirst). Please let me know what you think.

[orrorcol]

Hi @uestc-lfs , after some thinking I agree the vector option should be actually better as it is more flexible and can be used both ways by the user.
Probably even a single order option would be enough for practical applications (CloserFirst). Please let me know what you think.

I agree

[orrorcol]

@yurymalkov I have finished my code. How do you like it?

[yurymalkov]

Great! Thank you so much! And apologies that it took so long!