Re: [Usability] How should an editor behave when it comes to search and replace?

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Tue, 4 Jan 2005, Martyn Russell wrote:

> Date: Tue, 04 Jan 2005 23:19:21 +0000
> From: Martyn Russell <mr gnome org>
> To: usability gnome org
> Subject: Re: [Usability] How should an editor behave when it comes to
>     search and replace?
>
> On Mon, 2005-01-03 at 15:42 +0100, Markus Bertheau ☭ wrote:
> > Hi,
>
> Hi,
>
> > I'm writing a continuous-save, mom-friendly and plugin free text editor
> > for GNOME. I'd need interaction design advice on how a text editor
> > should behave when it comes to searching / searching and replacing. What
> > do you see as optimal behaviour for a text editor for GNOME in this
> > respect?
>
> Personally, I have always hated the way a search or search & replace
> type dialog worked since it always needs to be moved because it is above
> something you are reading on a web page or in a document.

Smart programs move the window if it is in the way or they scroll enough
so that the word isn't obscured.

> The new search mechanism that Firefox uses from version 1.0 (I think)
> where a small entry box and some options appear at the bottom of the
> window is a great idea.

I noticed this, eventually (not sure which Mozilla related product it was
though).  A searchbox for the current context appears just above the
status bar.  Unfortunately I was expecting a pop-up dialog and it wasn't
obvious that anything had actually happened so it took a while for me to
discover what was giong on.

> Plus the whole idea about having colours when
> the text doesn't match and optionally highlighting every instance in a
> document is just brilliant in my opinion.

In a really large document highlighting every match could be a little bit
time consuming and at the very least is more effort to code than 'Find
Next'.  It is a nice feature alright - gvim has it - but it depends on the
developer deciding if users are going to search often enough for it to be
worthwhile programming a really powerful search tool.  I remember someone
pointing out a program that added lines/dashes overlayed on the scrollbar
to indicate matches which was a really clever next evolutionary step.


Sincerely

Alan Horkan

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