[Usability] Now and then (In re: Find and Replace)

[Gregory Merchan <merchan phys lsu edu>]

Right now, GNOME apps offering Find (and Replace) do so with dialogs.
They are all using different dialogs and suffering from different problems.
It is a sorry state of affairs. A number of bug reports, board comments,
and list comments will attest to that and that users have noticed.

Right now, I can't think of a GNOME app that even has incremental search.

It should not be hard to change the existing Find (and Replace) dialogs
to match those in my second attempt at standardization. (Note that in
that, incremental search is optional.)  There's barely any new code,
just a few string changes and UI rearrangements.  This can be fixed now
before the string and UI freezes, as part of UI review.

When that is done, then the developers of those apps can proceed to write
the code they need for incremental search within the same basic interface.

When that is done, and when the GUP has devised and agreed to a dialog-less
scheme for Find, then we can move towards implementing it with a modicum
of further effort on behalf of the developers and little transition trouble
for the users.

To jump warp speed to the Star Trek future now would be a disservice to
developer and user. Developers would have to write search code and the
interfaces to it all at once while arguments about the parts flame on
the usability list. Users would suffer inconsistency, worse than that they
have now, as one developer would pick one UI, another another, and still
some would be doing nothing at all.

As I said at the end of my second pass:
>
> In the long run, Find might not even be a dialog. With only three controls,
> it could be a bar that appears at the over the top left corner of the
> document when needed. It would be as unobtrusive as the mini-buffer of
> emacs. This is a matter for another time.


Cheers,
Greg