Re: Re: [PATCH] Conkeror like hints for incremental search

[gideon.stupp@gmail.com]

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Hi Tassilo, thanks for taking the time to the the patch!

On , Tassilo Horn <tassilo@member.fsf.org> wrote:
> Gideon Stupp gideon.stupp@gmail.com> writes:



> Hi Gideon,



> > This patch adds Conkeror like hints to incremental-search's currently

> > matched strings.

> > This way it is possible to choose one of the highlighted possibilities

> > without completing the search string (useful when using incremental

> > search for navigation).



> isearch is my main navigation feature, so I've just given your patch a

> try. Here's my feedback:



> - The characters inserted in front of matches are somewhat baffling

> (First I've thought: Why do I have all those typos?!). At least in

> X11 frames, I'd make them smaller than the usual text, maybe even

> superscript.

Agreed. Maybe the face should be customizable.

> And it would be nice if the hint chars where appended

> to matches in forward isearch but prepended in backward isearch.

> That way, the hint char would indicate the position of point when

> selecting that match.


Interesting. I played around with various possibilities and finally decided  
to always put the hints at the beginning because that is what Conkeror  
does. Again,
maybe it should be customizable.



> - Concerning navigation speed, I don't feel that those type hints help

> me. It might do so if the visible buffer portion contains tons of

> matches, but in my regular use, there are only ~3 matches, so

> hitting Cs or Cr repeatedly is faster for me than switching my

> finger to some other key.

As you say, the usefulness of the hints is really for those infrequent but  
annoying cases where there are more than a few matches. There are two  
typical scenarios where I find myself using them. The first one
is when I need to jump to a position on the screen that is not unique. For  
example lets say I am editing isearch.el and I see call to  
function "isearch-toggle-hints" that I want to change. Since searching  
for "isearch" is futile, I can search for "toggle", hopefully reach the  
correct line and then go back a word. But it seems easier to start the  
search with Cs Cf, type in a few characters of the prefix of "isearch" (3  
characters are usually enough) and then use the hint if necessary. The  
second even more annoying use case is when I am searching for a string that  
I believed to be unique, but turns out to have multiple hits. In this case,  
instead of cancelling the search and starting a new one I can just press Cf  
and use the hints to jump to the correct place.




> - I think Cf (and all other keys normally used for navigation) is a

> bad choice, because that's what people usually use for leaving

> isearch. Maybe Mh would be ok. It has some mnemonics, and its

> usual binding of `mark-paragraph' isn't too useful in isearch.
Understood. Still it would be nice to be able to start a hinted search  
without switching between the control key (for Cs) and the Meta key.




> Bye,

> Tassilo



Thanks again, Gideon.

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