#102 Enhance search in results

[Jackslade]

Mainly copied from bug #78 with suggestions on improvement to search in results. Bug #78 addresses a couple of issues with the current solution, but this will enable the project to enhance the overall flow/look of the search in results function.

Hi ... I have v4.2.2, Windows 7
When I search within-results for a second string, that seems to work OK. I will use a simple example.
Search: "function".... 73 hits.
Search for Ada comment character:
Search-in-results: "-- " .... 1,290 hits
Search lines without Ada comment character:
Negation, Search-in-results: Nothing!
To be fair the very first, Search-in-results, I tried worked for inclusive but negation Search-in-results has never worked.
While I'm on the topic of "Search-in-results", the User Interface around that function is extremely fragile and that makes it prone to user errors.
I could be wrong in misremembering how the v3 search-in-results (used to work); none the less I'd like to document 'my' preference for a valuable Search-in-results functionality.
The basic idea is to work like a chain of piped grep commands or windows find commands.
grep "function" .ada | grep -v "-- "
find "function" .ada | find /v "-- "
That gives me a list of all function declarations, lines that contain the word "function" that are not comments. In my example it is a number less than 73.
With a graphic interface like AstroGrep, I'd expect to be able to use CONTROL/LEFT-CLICK to multi select the files to search-within-results.
That is, deeper search of selected files, not always search all files.
The Search-in-Results function looks like-a drop-down list; it doesn't work like a drop-down, that's confusing. At least it was to me.
As a drop-down, I'd expect it to be a selector between search (as in new search, search again), and
Search-in-Results, as in search only from the results displayed.
Allow me to denote the "results displayed" as a "search-context".
The way is it now, it is an action and seems to lose my search-context even before I've changed the search options I need for the Search-in-Results operation.
The Search-in-Results ought to let me keep searching among the current search-context, so I can have deep searches like multiple greps chains, e.g.:
grep "function" .ada | grep -v "-- " | grep "delete" | grep "folder" | etc.*
A wish list, it would be lovely if the Search-in-Results could let you:
save a search-chain like a "project"
allow me to back-up my Search-in-Results to the previous search-context
Finally, I the notion of a search context was just a convenient name. But before I finish, I'd suggest it isn't a result-set; a search-context should be the search-chain to produce the result-set. That way it would work like a command history of grep-chains on the command line.
Since the Search-in-Results is operating at a sub-optimal level, I hope you'll give these User eXperience points serious consideration when tackling this bug.
Regards,
Will