Re: flx -- flex with better sorting

["Óscar Fuentes" <ofv@wanadoo.es>]

Le Wang <l26wang@gmail.com> writes:

> I've put up my implementation of Sublime Text 2's fuzzy matching -- i.e.
> ido's flex with superior sorting. https://github.com/lewang/flx
>
> I've made a screencast (5 min) of rationale and workflow.
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_swuJ1RuMgk
>
> I have signed assignment papers, and would be willing to contribute it to
> Emacs.  So please check it out and point out any inefficiencies in my
> algorithms.

From trying it for a few minutes with ido:

1. I like it. Looks much better that ido's flex matching.

2. Working with 10500 candidate files, there is a noticeable pause the
   first time ido-complete is invoked. I'm using a reasonably fast
   machine and the pause is not annoying, but that perception may change
   when using less capable machines.

3. With the same set of candidates, RES memory jumps from 35 MB to 70 MB
   on first use (on a 64 bit GNU/Linux machine). This is a more serious
   concern.

4. Sometimes it fails to work as advertised. For instance, if I type
   `ltx' this file is shown first on the list of matches:

lib/Target/NVPTX/NVPTXLowerAggrCopies.h

but I would expect

lib/Target/X86/* (* meaning any file under that subdirectory).

Furthermore, when inputting `ltx8', matching letters on candidates are
highlighted like this:

lib/Target/X86/X86TargetTransformInfo.cpp
^   ^          ^^

It ignores the first occurrence of `X8'.

5. Another quirk is that it rejects capital letters. For instance, if I
   type `lT' it shows no matches, but in fact there are lots of files
   like this:

lib/Target/...

Actually, typing just `T' fails to find any candidate, but there are
lots files with a capital T on its name.