Re: Re: [PATCH] Conkeror like hints for incremental search

[gideon . stupp]

Hi Tassilo, thanks for taking the time to the the patch!

On , Tassilo Horn <address@hidden> wrote:
> Gideon Stupp address@hidden> writes:
> 
> 
> 
> Hi Gideon,
> 
> 
> 
> > This patch adds Conkeror like hints to incremental-search's currently
> 
> > matched strings.
> 
> > This way it is possible to choose one of the highlighted possibilities
> 
> > without completing the search string (useful when using incremental
> 
> > search for navigation).
> 
> 
> 
> isearch is my main navigation feature, so I've just given your patch a
> 
> try.  Here's my feedback:
> 
> 
> 
>   - The characters inserted in front of matches are somewhat baffling
> 
>     (First I've thought: Why do I have all those typos?!).  At least in
> 
>     X11 frames, I'd make them smaller than the usual text, maybe even
> 
>     superscript.

Agreed. Maybe the face should be customizable.

>     And it would be nice if the hint chars where appended
> 
>     to matches in forward isearch but prepended in backward isearch.
> 
>     That way, the hint char would indicate the position of point when
> 
>     selecting that match.
> 

Interesting. I played around with various possibilities and finally decided to always put the hints at the beginning because that is what Conkeror does. Again,
maybe it should  be customizable.

> 
> 
>   - Concerning navigation speed, I don't feel that those type hints help
> 
>     me.  It might do so if the visible buffer portion contains tons of
> 
>     matches, but in my regular use, there are only ~3 matches, so
> 
>     hitting C-s or C-r repeatedly is faster for me than switching my
> 
>     finger to some other key.

As you say, the usefulness of the hints is really for those infrequent but annoying cases where there are more than a few matches. There are two typical scenarios where I find myself using them. The first one
is when I need to jump to a position on the screen that is not unique. For example lets say I am editing isearch.el and I see call to function "isearch-toggle-hints" that I want to change. Since searching for "isearch" is futile, I can search for "toggle", hopefully reach the correct line and then go back a word. But it seems easier to start the search with C-s C-f, type in a few characters of the prefix of "isearch" (3 characters are usually enough) and then use the hint if necessary. The second even more annoying use case is when I am searching for a string that I believed to be unique, but turns out to have multiple hits. In this case, instead of cancelling the search and starting a new one I can just press C-f and use the hints to jump to the correct place.

> 
> 
> 
>   - I think C-f (and all other keys normally used for navigation) is a
> 
>     bad choice, because that's what people usually use for leaving
> 
>     isearch.  Maybe M-h would be ok.  It has some mnemonics, and its
> 
>     usual binding of `mark-paragraph' isn't too useful in isearch.
Understood. Still it would be nice to be able to start a hinted search without switching between the control key (for C-s) and the Meta key.

> 
> 
> 
> Bye,
> 
> Tassilo
> 
> 

Thanks again, Gideon.