For my part I'd rather put a text field in the status bar of a window,
with a "find" button, or a pulldown choice,
find forwards
find backwards
open find/replace window
I don't like "find" bringing up a dialogue box that obscures the text I
was looking at. This is only good user interface design in the "good
means copying the mistakes of others" school of thought. Another
example of irritating insanity in this vein is the gimp's "crop"
dialogue, which hides part of the window, coming up exactly over
the place you're working and is always disruptive. Wait until I've
dragged the whole rectangle, guys, how hard can this be?
So let's get rid of find dialogues altogether and improve the world.