Re: [Tracker] suggestions for improving tracker

[Martyn Russell <martyn lanedo com>]

On 20/10/09 14:14, Maria K. wrote:
> Hi,

Hi,

> I'm using tracker 0.6.93 at the moment, so all items I mention might be
> fixed in 0.7 but I don't know. I'm using Ubuntu 9.04.

Unfortunately, the 0.6.x branch is frozen. This only crashes will be 
fixed. I need to do another release of 0.6.x soon, but there won't be 
any UI updates.

> +++ GUI issues +++
> 1) When searching for something with the tracker search tool (GUI) the
> results area is rather often messed up (the entries for each result are
> much higher than they need be => https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/448677;
> going to the next 'page' of search results usually helps after resizing
> the results area).
> 2) Add a possibility to show more than 10 results on one page

This is done differently in 0.7

> 3) When it says 'Showing results 1-10', it actually should show all
> results. However, at the moment it often shows a smaller number, without
> any explanation what's wrong.
> 4) It would be nice to not only have 'Documents' as a very generic
> description, but also maybe 'pdf'. (or at least give an indication
> somewhere, what categories are available)
> 5) an option to exclude filetypes might be nice (I might now that what
> I'm looking for is a pdf-file and not a config file or *.txt)

I think I agree here. It is difficult if the file type is unknown. The 
icon tends to help out a bit here too - but if there is no icon for 
foo.bar and foo.baz then how would you know which file it is?

> 6) allow me to sort my search results by folders - I quite often know
> that what I'm searching for is for example not in folder x although the
> search term is found there very often (my current workaround is to
> exclude the folder which is not a very elegant solution)

This can't be changed for 0.6.

> 7) GUI possibility to remove tags (e.g., put a - next to the +)

That should definitely be there I agree. I am surprised it is not. This 
also needs doing in the 0.7 version.

> +++ Preferences issues +++
> I like setting the "Smart Pausing" setting to "on" in Tracker
> Preferences. However, every time I change something in the Indexer
> Preferences, "Smart Pausing" is reset to "off". This is rather annoying
> as it makes my PC unusable.

This sounds like a simple preferences bug.

> +++ Search issues +++
> 1) allow phrase searches/searching for acronyms (ATM =/= atm =/=
> atmospheric)

Not entirely sure I understand what you mean by this.

> 2) maybe a search for author might be nice (useful for documents if they
> are properly done)
>
> Any opinions?

All good ideas and thank you for writing to the list. Unfortunately 0.6. 
is not getting much work done to it right now because 0.7. is much more 
the focus. I really recommend you try that if you get the chance!

> Thanks for your attention

Thank you for trying it ;)

--
Regards,
Martyn