information-sifitng front ends to data bases

[hmadorf@eso.org]

Hi MCLers,

has anyone out there written applications for information retrieval
or information filtering? I am interested in extensible,
programmable high-level DB interfaces which 
- implement spreadsheet functionality or
- can be used for personal bibliographical databases or
- perform fuzzy matching or
- carry out statistical classification or
- serve as user-friendly database client to an SQL (Sybase)
RDBMS on a Unix box accessible via TCP/IP.

Any pointers, also to the published literature, are welcome.

Thanks.

Hans-Martin Adorf
ST-ECF/ESO
adorf@eso.org