AW: [plt-scheme] Replace & Find in v4.1

See below

> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: robby.findler at gmail.com [mailto:robby.findler at gmail.com] 
> Im Auftrag von Robby Findler
> Gesendet: Freitag, 15. August 2008 16:03
> An: Robert Matovinovic
> Cc: plt-scheme at list.cs.brown.edu
> Betreff: Re: [plt-scheme] Replace & Find in v4.1
> 
> 
> On Fri, Aug 15, 2008 at 8:17 AM, Robert Matovinovic 
> <robert.matovinovic at web.de> wrote:
> > What I also found right now is that if words are not 
> wrapped in editor 
> > buffer and you are somewhere in a long line where you don't see the 
> > next selection ctrl+g doesn't bring you there only the 
> cursor jumps, 
> > which is confusing because you see in the find dialog 
> editor there are 
> > matches but you don't get there.
> 
> Are you saying that you hit "control-g", there are matches, 
> but you do not jump to the next match? That sounds like a bug.
> 

Not exactly but similar: I had a very long line which I copied into the
editor(actually it was a word list for completions which I copied from
standard output). I was looking for something right at the end of the line
and then I searched for something. There was only one match right at the
beginning of the line. So while I was pressing ctrl+g or ctrl+f I saw that
the cursor was jumping away, but the window wasn't scrolled to the left so
that I could see the match.


> > I checked out anchor search and find that I'm personally 
> used to jump 
> > between selections which I have to work on mostly. So I 
> don't see the 
> > advantage of the anchor without selection, but you might give me a 
> > hint.
> 
> I'm not quite getting this part. I think you might be 
> suggesting a way to improve the search -- perhaps you can 
> elaborate a little?

Ok, I analyzed my search behavior in light of v4.1. Most of the time when I
search I want to find something and not see how things are distributed over
the file. That means, it is nice to see where the matches are, but basically
it is not necessary to see the distribution of matches. What I like about
the circles is that they let you jump faster with the eye from match to
match. But back to search. I initially expected to have selected one match
after typing a search string, best the next to the cursor. Because the
matches are circled, so they are found and one is already selected I
assumed, as it has been before the introduction of circling in search. So I
was wondering why it wasn't like that. That is what I needed. Then I'm also
used to use ctrl+f for find again as well and was confused when only ctrl+g
brought me forward. 

And further something deep in my brain was confused by the normal selection
(blue) and the round tan selection which changed seemingly arbitrarily using
ctrl+f,g,r. They both mean the same but appear very different in shape and
color. So somewhere in my brain I asked myself - is it really the same
thing? And I found that I react strongly to such difference, that I would
like to have no different appearance of selections, if they carry the same
information. 

Very often I look only for one special thing, so I want to get there with
the least possible effort. That means something like ctrl+f for the dialog
and an incremental search by typing in the search string. If I'm there
another click or ctrl+r for replace and find again. But I'm also used to a
non incremental search making another ctrl+f, ctrl+g or button click
necessary to get to the next match. 

I would suggest this: 2 search modes
Mode 1, incremental, type in a search string and during that the cursor
jumps to the next match and selects it so that replace works right away

Mode 2, absolute, type in a search string, nothing happens, pressing the
find button jumps to the next match (either from the cursor, if no match is
selected yet, or from the actual match) and selects it. Replace and find
again works as usual.

These modes are similar to those we had in earlier versions with the
undocked and docked search dialog window. To change the search mode via the
window position is not very intuitive so I only learned the difference by
chance. But actually I think search modes are a kind of personal preference
(I mostly would use Mode 1), so it should be selectable in either
Preferences/Editing/General, or by a checkbox in the search dialog. 

The anchor search seems to me similar to Mode 1, where the anchor is a
selection.

The circling of matches is a nice feature, to get an idea where the matches
are, but I also see it as a personal preference which should be selectable
in Preferences/Editing/General.

This is a lot but I hope it helps. I found it very interesting being
confronted with a feature I thought I knew and how many assumptions I made
about it about which I wasn't aware.


> 
> > Feature request:
> > What I like about the new find dialog is the count of 
> matches. I had 
> > to use find extensively yesterday and noticed, what would be in 
> > addition very helpful, if you work on big files with a lot 
> of matches, 
> > would be the number of the current match beneath it.
> 
> You mean how many matches before and how many after the 
> insertion point, as in "there are 5 matches after the 
> insertion point"? Or do you mean the count, as in "the 
> current section is the 3rd match" (which might not always be 
> relevant, if nothing is selected).

I thought of something like "there are 5 matches after the insertion
point/the current match".

> 
> Robby
>