GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 507665
GTK+ type-ahead search
Last modified: 2008-04-06 22:27:38 UTC
In nautilus, you can just type the beginning of a directory or file when the list has focus, and the selection will jump to the first matching entry. This feature is also available in most other list views in GTK apps, but it is notably absent in Banshee. I did not miss the feature until now... but the introduction of the artist/album browser really changes things. It would be awesome to just press a few letters to get to the artist/album I am looking for. This idea currently collides with the default key shortcuts, because banshee takes single key presses as shortcuts even with a listview having focus. I think this is quite uncommon, and not worth breaking a useful GTK feature (the tree type-ahead search) for.
Well, trunk is using a custom widget, so this will definitely break that feature. Isn't this what the search box is for though? Not exactly the same thing, but it works.
The search box is very powerful, sure. But one could also argue that the search box makes the browser obsolete, because "it works". I often use this combined mouse/keyboard navigation in nautilus for example. In small folders, I can faster click than I could type (in terminal), but if the directory is large or I don't really know what exactly I'm looking for, the type-ahead is very useful. Same for banshee's browser, custom widget or not,
*** Bug 519843 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Sorry, I just posted a duplicate of this "bug" because apparently I can't use a search engine... But I'll agree that this feature would be much-appreciated. It's true that the search bar "works," but in most cases I don't want to filter out all of the non-relevant results; I just want to jump to a certain part of the list. For example, if I search for the artist "Mew" in the search bar, I am given an enormous list of results including "Mew," "mewithoutYou," and every song containing "somewhere" in the title. This doesn't do me much good, plus if I change my mind and want to listen to Radiohead instead, I have to exit this search and start a new one. With type-ahead I can just type "mew" and I'm there, or "radi" and it jumps again. It's much faster.
(In reply to comment #4) > Sorry, I just posted a duplicate of this "bug" because apparently I can't use a > search engine... No worries; bugzilla can be a bit awkward with searches. > For example, if I search for the artist "Mew" in the search bar, I am given an > enormous list of results including "Mew," "mewithoutYou," and every song > containing "somewhere" in the title. This doesn't do me much good, plus if I > change my mind and want to listen to Radiohead instead, I have to exit this > search and start a new one. With type-ahead I can just type "mew" and I'm > there, or "radi" and it jumps again. It's much faster. Interesting use case. I'd argue that the search bar is a bit more generally functional, and of course you could limit the type to Artist/Track/etc. But maybe there's something that could be done here. As I mentioned in comment #1, this is the problem with custom widgets. Anyone up for adding in a custom inline search function? ;)
First(In reply to comment #5) > Anyone up for adding in a custom inline search function? ;) > First the developers will have to agree that this feature is useful. But I guess this bug will get many more dupes after the preview releases or at least 1.0 final is out and gets wider testing, as the type-ahead find in treeviews is something many even not so advanced users use in other apps. Actually this weekend my girlfriend tried to use this in banshee trunk and then asked if she broke something because it was not working as she expected ;)
(In reply to comment #6) > First the developers will have to agree that this feature is useful. But I > guess this bug will get many more dupes after the preview releases or at least > 1.0 final is out and gets wider testing, as the type-ahead find in treeviews is > something many even not so advanced users use in other apps. Actually this > weekend my girlfriend tried to use this in banshee trunk and then asked if she > broke something because it was not working as she expected ;) Right, I think a case could be made for the custom widget mirroring GTK+ functionality as closely as possible.
*** Bug 525076 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 525838 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Should have caught this a long time ago; closing as duplicate of bug #399655. *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 399655 ***