Re: [Tracker] A couple of issues in tracker-search-tool

[Erlend Davidson <E R M Davidson sms ed ac uk>]

On 16 Dec 2006, at 19:14, Laurent Aguerreche wrote:

> Le samedi 16 décembre 2006 à 20:15 +0200, Tshepang Lekhonkhobe a  
> écrit :
> > On 12/16/06, Luca Ferretti <elle uca libero it> wrote:
> > > 1. Search button should be grayed out when search entry is empty.
> > >
> > >         To reproduce: open Tracker Search Tool, the search entry is
> > >         empty, but you can click on Search button.
> >
> > this is ok
> >
> > >         More info: I suppose the search button should also be  
> > > grayed out
> > >         after a search is performed, and clickable only when  
> > > there is
> > >         something new to search in text entry.
> >
> > Often, while Tracker is still indexing, you'd like to continue
> > searching with the same terms again just by clicking the search  
> > button
> > (which is not grayed out). This feature you suggest will end up as a
> > frustration in such a case.
> >
> > > 2. Clear the results list on text entry cleaning
> > >
> > >         To reproduce: open Tracker Search Tool, enter text in search
> > >         entry, search and find it, now clic the clear entry icon.  
> > > The
> > >         results list still show previous results.
> > >
> > >         More info: waiting for a search-as-you-type feature,  
> > > should we
> > >         clear the results list after every text entry changes
> >
> > I hope the search-as-you-type feature is not implemented in t-s-t,
> > especially considering that loads of people type at different speeds,
> > and also because hitting enter shouldn't be much trouble after typing
> > the entry. Such a feature is unneeded elegance...
>
> This feature is already used in Spotlight and in the search tool in
> Vista. It makes the user thinking that the search system is going fast
> and it also show him whether he has to more detail its query or not.
> Furthermore user has a kind of interactivity.
> I agree that such a feature will hit slow computers (and I have  
> such one
> so I understand what it is...) but it is also something that many  
> users
> would like to have and something that some people could argue on to  
> say
> that tracker is not fast (yes it's wrong...).

Part of the advantage in search-as-you-type is that sometimes you  
don't need to type the whole thing... the computer finds it faster  
than you can finish typing it.  Particularly with "unusual" words  
(e.g. I use Spotlight to launch xmgrace, by the time I've finished  
typing 'xmg'  the top-hit is xmgrace... I just press down arrow and  
enter to run it).