Re: Why cluehunting ?



Dan Effugas Kaminsky <effugas@best.com> wrote:
> >I believe "user-request" is the keyword here. everyone who regularily uses
> >netscape 4 know how autocompletion can make your work HARDER than it would
> >be without.
> 
> There are a good load of people who *really* like autocomplete...I *was*
> thinking about a mode where you see what the commanded complete would do if
> triggered, but wouldn't actually trigger unless requested.  Sorta like
> http://www.best would have the remaining text come up greyed out, and the
> user could pick to expand it.  An enter would default to leaving it as it
> was.

the actual trouble is this:

I work somewhat on my pages. so as soon as I entered:

www.lemu

in netscape, it completes to:

www.lemuria.org/SpellMaster/Creatures-html

which might be the first entry it finds, or the first I entered, or
whatever. now if I want to actually edit the Councils.html page, I have to
either type everything, or go to the end, delete half of the line and write
it anew. in addition, "Creatures-html" isn't even a valid page, it was a
typo.
there's no tabbing through possibilities, no partial completion, nothing.
autocompletion in netscape is - no similiarities intended - a good feature
that has not been thought-out well enough or tested enough. the worst part
of it is "auto". you know those news-pages where the url can easily fill the
line? well, try to go to the start page by typing in it's url. don't type
too slowly or you'll end up in the last article you read instead...

what all this goes to say is that a computer that tries to outsmart its user
is usually a pain in the ass. that's why I'm all for the demand that
completion should ONLY, EVER be done after the user explicitly requested it.


-- 
Those who do not understand Unix are condemned to reinvent it, poorly.
		-- Henry Spencer



[Date Prev][Date Next]   [Thread Prev][Thread Next]   [Thread Index] [Date Index] [Author Index]