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Bug 635989 - Add a search provider for the session's current windows.
Add a search provider for the session's current windows.
Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX
Product: gnome-shell
Classification: Core
Component: general
3.4.x
Other All
: Normal normal
: ---
Assigned To: gnome-shell-maint
gnome-shell-maint
: 644854 673356 680850 776642 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
 
Reported: 2010-11-28 15:25 UTC by Jasper St. Pierre (not reading bugmail)
Modified: 2017-01-05 18:01 UTC
See Also:
GNOME target: ---
GNOME version: 3.3/3.4


Attachments
Add a search provider for the session's current windows. (3.94 KB, patch)
2010-11-28 15:25 UTC, Jasper St. Pierre (not reading bugmail)
none Details | Review
Add a search provider for the session's current windows (5.23 KB, patch)
2011-04-28 15:48 UTC, Jasper St. Pierre (not reading bugmail)
none Details | Review

Description Jasper St. Pierre (not reading bugmail) 2010-11-28 15:25:33 UTC
This will allow quick window switching with the keyboard
without using alt-tab.
Comment 1 Jasper St. Pierre (not reading bugmail) 2010-11-28 15:25:35 UTC
Created attachment 175416 [details] [review]
Add a search provider for the session's current windows.
Comment 2 Owen Taylor 2010-12-08 17:31:36 UTC
Jon - can you take a quick look and see if you think this is useful as is, or will need more design and tuning?

Trying it out, some thoughts:

 - Case matching isn't quite right - if I have a window called 'XChat: ....'
   then typing 'XChat' does find it, I have to type 'xchat'

 - In the case where windows and applications line up - if I type 'xchat' - it's confusing when there are two things shown and clicking on either one does the same thing.

 - It would be perhaps a lot more useful if it was searching browser tabs as well.

 - The display as an app icon + a very short ellipsized part of the title feels wrong to me. I think we might actually want a generously large window thumbnail.
Comment 3 Colin Walters 2010-12-08 20:51:37 UTC
Doesn't seem like a by-default thing at least.  Though I think a "search windows by hotkey" would make a decent extension, or possibly in-core with an undefined keybinding?  Or we could actually define it to be Super-w or something, though right now Super-<k> for all values of k is aren't taken, not sure what the ramifications of starting to claim keybindings there would be.
Comment 4 Jasper St. Pierre (not reading bugmail) 2010-12-08 22:04:55 UTC
(In reply to comment #2)
> Jon - can you take a quick look and see if you think this is useful as is, or
> will need more design and tuning?
> 
> Trying it out, some thoughts:
> 
>  - Case matching isn't quite right - if I have a window called 'XChat: ....'
>    then typing 'XChat' does find it, I have to type 'xchat'

Fixed locally here.

>  - In the case where windows and applications line up - if I type 'xchat' -
> it's confusing when there are two things shown and clicking on either one does
> the same thing.

OK.

>  - It would be perhaps a lot more useful if it was searching browser tabs as
> well.

Not my job :)

>  - The display as an app icon + a very short ellipsized part of the title feels
> wrong to me. I think we might actually want a generously large window
> thumbnail.

In some cases we get a wrong-sized app icon, but yeah.

I just added it here because I liked being able to hit Super and type a window to switch without taking too long. Maybe an additional non-overview search would be helpful? (Super-space feels "right" to me)

My next part of this patch was going to see if I could drag applications and windows to the workspace selector on the right when that lands, but it looks like it will only be in the Windows tab.
Comment 5 Owen Taylor 2011-03-15 19:44:25 UTC
*** Bug 644854 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 6 gazambuja 2011-04-08 13:49:12 UTC
This is a excelent idea: search by title of windows to switch to this open app.
Comment 7 Jasper St. Pierre (not reading bugmail) 2011-04-28 15:48:12 UTC
Created attachment 186825 [details] [review]
Add a search provider for the session's current windows
Comment 8 Reinout van Schouwen 2012-04-02 22:43:57 UTC
*** Bug 673356 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 9 Reinout van Schouwen 2012-04-02 22:44:24 UTC
From duplicate bug:

The ‘search window’ extension allows switching windows by typing their title in
the Activities overlay. I think this is such logical functionality to have,
that it should be enabled by default in Gnome Shell.

https://github.com/charleso/gnome-shell-extension-search-window
Comment 10 Jasper St. Pierre (not reading bugmail) 2012-04-24 18:24:41 UTC
Extensions can do this perfectly well.
Comment 11 Reinout van Schouwen 2012-05-08 22:40:20 UTC
(In reply to comment #10)
> Extensions can do this perfectly well.

Uhm, well yes, they might. But IMNSHO it's inconceivable why this isn't core functionality!
Comment 12 Florian Müllner 2012-07-30 18:21:55 UTC
*** Bug 680850 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 13 Florian Müllner 2017-01-05 18:01:05 UTC
*** Bug 776642 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***