#205 More "Find" Options
I have two stories in mind. They're not exactly
related, but they have good synergy.
Story one:
A user wants to find the usages of a certain method.
After selecting the method name, the user types ctrl+F
to search. The search tab is automatically brought up
with the selected text in the search field. The user
is then able to repeatedly type <Enter or <F3> to
search for the method without having to type the name
in the search field.
Story two:
A user has just searched for one bit of text, but
realizes that a previous search is needed again. The
user types <down arrow> in the search field, and the
last search the user looked for is shown.
Additionally, the search field might become a combo box
so that the search history can be displayed all at once.
The first option could be annoying if the user actually
wanted to search for the last thing again or make a
slight modification to it; however, with the search
history, it would be easy to get that back if something
were highlighted upon hitting find.
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These are good suggestions -- especially the first one. Since a search hit
is selected in the document, we can keep the semantics for
repeating a search consistent with the semantics for starting a new
search from a selection, and won't change the value of the find field
unexpectedly in the normal case. This could be useful for more than
method names.
The second story might need some tweaking. I am generally distrustful
of anything that changes the standard editing semantics for text-
boxes. On the Mac, using the up and down arrows is a useful way to
navigate to the beginning or end of the text. A good compromise might
be something like the Google search field in the Safari browser, which
works like a text field but has a button to display a popup menu
containing the last few searches. We could implement this using an
editable combo box or with a button that shows a popup menu of recent
searches but has no label (to save space). This control should clearly
look like a popup menu and be placed immediately next to the text field,
so the user is encouraged to explore its function.