[Eric] Feature request/suggestion (feature modification suggestion, really)

[Mike C. Fletcher]

On 2016-05-06 12:26 PM, Detlev Offenbach wrote:
>
> Hi Mike,
>
> sounds like a great idea. How about contributing the suggested 
> modifications?
>
> Maybe somebody else is interested, in case Mike can't do it?
>

I've started into work on it... I've got a hacked-up proof of concept 
dialog that does the basics but still needs work to get key-bindings and 
the like worked out.

Anyway, just wanted to avoid someone duplicating the work. Take care,
Mike

> Detlev
>
> On Friday 06 May 2016, 12:07:44 Mike C. Fletcher wrote:
>
> > Hi Detlev (and everyone else),
>
> >
>
> > There's a feature I keep seeing in Atom and other IDEs that is *really*
>
> > helpful for jumping around in larger (10,000+ file) projects. It's a
>
> > quick-file-search-and-open dialog. Basically it's the functionality in
>
> > File | Search File, but modelled as a speed-optimized keyboard-centric
>
> > searching/winnowing process.
>
> >
>
> > That is, you pop up the dialog with a key-sequence and start typing
>
> > (fragments from) the name of the file, so, for instance, if I wanted to
>
> > find "subproject/subproject/moo/models.py" I would type something 
> like this:
>
> >
>
> > ctrl-alt-f
>
> > moo models subp
>
> > <down> (to select the second match)
>
> > <enter>
>
> >
>
> > The search results would update as I typed "moo" to have all files with
>
> > the substring "moo" in their paths (with those that have moo as a full
>
> > path component sorted first, hopefully), then when I start typing
>
> > "models" would further restrict the set to those items that contain both
>
> > moo and models, and when I start typing subp(roject) the search set gets
>
> > down to 1-2 entries and I just select the entry with the arrows and hit
>
> > enter (again, without leaving the search box or using the mouse).
>
> >
>
> > When results are displayed, the first item is always selected, and
>
> > hitting <enter> opens it, while up/down arrows select other entries
>
> > (again, without needing to switch focus from the search box).
>
> >
>
> > The changes from current File Search suggested are:
>
> >
>
> > * don't require file extension filtering
>
> > o particularly when you have a *lot* of no-file-extension files
>
> > that restriction isn't all that useful
>
> > o if the file-extension widget is empty, ignore it
>
> > * do simple sub-string matching on the set of file-paths known to the
>
> > project
>
> > o do *not* require a full-name match on the terms, but *rank*
>
> > those result higher
>
> > + allow e.g. "subproject/moo" to find everything that has that
>
> > sequence of characters in its path
>
> > o this should likely be done on in-memory structures only, *not*
>
> > on the file system
>
> > * treat space-delimited fragments as AND'd search terms
>
> > o again, ease of typing being the rationale here, not something
>
> > involved
>
> > * allow hitting <up> and <down> to change the selected item from the
>
> > search box
>
> > * allow hitting <enter> in the search box to open the
>
> > currently-selected file
>
> >
>
> > Nice enhancements:
>
> >
>
> > * sort results based on relevance ranking (optional) so e.g. having a
>
> > full path-unit == to a search term sorts before having it as a
>
> > sub-string of a path unit
>
> > * if there are no matches (or less than a threshold, such as a full
>
> > screen of results), use fuzzy-matching (soundex, ledit distance,
>
> > etc) to try to find other possible matches (always sorted below
>
> > absolute matches)
>
> > * as you type, do autocomplete on the path fragments we know, so "sub"
>
> > would autocomplete to the longest common fragment that starts with
>
> > "sub" (a-la bash or similar shell)
>
> >
>
> > With that done, we could also do the following:
>
> >
>
> > * on an import statement, launching file-search could pre-populate
>
> > with the import name (and with "from" imports, the upper level
>
> > module, with . translated to /)
>
> > * on other fragments of code, launching file-search could pre-populate
>
> > with the current token
>
> >
>
> > Anyway, this is just a suggestion, and feel free to say no.
>
> >
>
> > Thanks for all the great work on Eric,
>
> > Mike --
>
> Detlev Offenbach
>
> detlev at die-offenbachs.de
>

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