Re: [PATCH] nconfig: add search support

[Nir Tzachar <nir.tzachar@gmail.com>]

On Thu, Aug 5, 2010 at 9:19 PM, Randy Dunlap <randy.dunlap@oracle.com> wrote:
> On 08/05/10 11:13, Nir Tzachar wrote:
>> On Thu, Aug 5, 2010 at 8:04 PM, Randy Dunlap <randy.dunlap@oracle.com> wrote:
>>> On Tue,  3 Aug 2010 15:28:12 +0300 nir.tzachar@gmail.com wrote:
>>>
>>>> From: Nir Tzachar <nir.tzachar@gmail.com>
>>>>
>>>> Remove the old hotkeys feature, and replace by a regular string search.
>>>> Behaviour of search is as advised by Sam.
>>>>
>>>> From nconfig help:
>>>>
>>>> Searching: pressing '/' triggers search mode. nconfig performs a
>>>>            regular string compare, case insensitive, starting at
>>>
>>> I would say: simple string compare
>>> "regular" has no meaning (at least for me) there.
>>
>> Regular means strcasecmp...
>
> That's not meaningful to a non-developer user.
> I'm a developer and it still has little meaning to me in this context.
>
>
>>>>            the beginning of each menu line.\n"
>>>>            Pressing the up/down keys highlights the previous/next
>>>>            matching item. Backspace removes one character from the
>>>>            match string. Pressing either '/' again or ESC exits\
>>>>            search mode. All other keys behave normally.
>>>>
>>>> Miscellaneous other changes (including Rundy's Justin's input).
>>>
>>> Yes, the bottom menu and the typos are fixed.  Thanks.
>>>
>>> However, I'm not finding this terribly useful, mostly due to it starting
>>> comparison at the beginning of each menu line.
>>>
>>> E.g., I'd like to be able to find "emulations" in the top-level menu here:
>>>        Executable file formats / Emulations  --->
>>> or I'd like to be able to find "crc" menu items in any sub-menu.
>>> Maybe I should just stick to config symbol searches.  I don't think it's all
>>> that likely that people will know how each menu line text begins.
>>>
>>>
>>
>> We can replace strcasecmp with strcasestr. I agree it would be more useful.
>
> Yes.
>
>>> As for the search UI, I'd rather that it be presented like the symbol search,
>>> in a box, instead of just a single line at the top of the screen.
>>
>> But then it is not interactive. I was aiming for something similar to
>> vim's search, where the search is matched as you type and the only
>> free terminal real-estate to display the match string was at the top
>> of the screen. I think such a minimal design is better than a
>> cumbersome text box which displays the search results afterwards (as
>> is symbol search), as the search is only intended for the currently
>> displayed menu and the user would usually just want to save the extra
>> typing of navigating to a specific menu item.
>
> OK, I expect that I'll just mostly use symbol search instead of this one then.
>
> The kicker for me is not how/where the dialog is -- it's this comment:
>
>  "as the search is only intended for the currently displayed menu"
>
> I think that's much too limiting.

A global search with an instant goto upon match cannot easily be
incorporated into nconfig's (or menuconfig's) design, as other menus
than the current one are not present.

>
>> Cheers.
>>
>>>> Signed-off-by: Nir Tzachar <nir.tzachar@gmail.com>
>>>> ---
>>>>  scripts/kconfig/nconf.c     |  350 +++++++++++++++++++++++++------------------
>>>>  scripts/kconfig/nconf.gui.c |   20 ++--
>>>>  scripts/kconfig/nconf.h     |    3 +-
>>>>  3 files changed, 213 insertions(+), 160 deletions(-)
>
>
> --
> ~Randy
> *** Remember to use Documentation/SubmitChecklist when testing your code ***
>