[Idle-dev] Feedback appreciated for two suggested new features

[Mark Roseman]

> On Oct 16, 2018, at 1:46 AM, Tal Einat <taleinat at gmail.com> wrote:
> Our current find dialog isn't much clearer than a search bar:
> For comparison, here's what the search bar in the current PR looks like on Windows:

Thanks for posting the images.

While I’m not a big fan of the existing dialogs, I think when you try to replace the dialogs entirely you end up having to shoe-horn every feature into a small space. It also increases the complexity for new users. I think what’s there now is about at the limit, particularly if you’re using a fairly narrow window. 

One approach to this would be to not show some of the ‘extra/advanced’ options right off the bat in the search bar, but have a small progressive-disclosure icon that allows you to show or hide them (either shrinking the width of the entry, or increasing the height of the search bar to add a second row). Some people might always keep those extra options visible, some might open them just to make changes and immediately close them, others might never open them at all. How those options were set and if the extra options were shown or not would be stored in preferences for next time. Something to consider, even if for later.

Another option is having a simple search bar and a full find dialog (as per screen shot, from TextMate) with separate menu items/shortcuts to trigger. Separates out a minimal version that you can use without interrupting your workflow vs. a full one. Works for me, not sure it’s right for Idle, given that adds another item to the menu which increases complexity and also of course the obvious duplication.

Mark

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