Re: [ jEdit-devel ] search-and-replace enhancements

[Alan M. <ala...@op...>]

Slava Pestov wrote:
> > Actually, I was thinking of having the widget store the REException
> > error message.  Then, when you think the pattern should work, but all
> > the buttons are greyed out, you click on the "Well, what's wrong with
> > it?!" button (maybe a small button with just a "?" on it, just to the
> > right of the 'find' textfield), and _then_ the dialog pops up.
> >
> > It's usually quicker and easier to figure out for yourself what's wrong
> > with the pattern--at least I've found it so, and I've been using this
> > scheme for several months now in an editor I wrote in Perl/Tk.  Also, I
> > hate error dialogs.
>
>How about having the button available at all times, but if an invalid
>regexp is being entered, have a small exclamation mark icon appear?
>Then, to get the error message, you would click the 'find' button.
>The error can be displayed on the exclamation mark's tool tip as well.


Then you would be using the 'find' button for two completely different
tasks: finding text, and viewing error messages.  That leaves it up to
the user to keep track of which 'mode' he's in, with potentially
disastrous results if he loses track.  Why have the action buttons be
'live' when you know they're not going to work?

Check out the attached file to see how I'm running it.

--Alan