Type Ahead Find: First match beginning, then match anywhere

[grindax]

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[TheQwerty]

Just wanted to post that I made a suggestion here that TAF gain support of wildcards which would make it possible to more easily switch between beginning vs. anywhere.

It's not the ideal solution you're looking for but it might be a fair compromise if Don is interested.

[admin]

Too complex. KISS.

[grindax]

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[Marco]

I'm surprised more people haven't supported my idea.

Example use case:
I want to find movies starting with 'T' and I'm currently at the top of the List. So I hit 't' to scroll the List to that area.
Later I want to find a particular movie, so I type one word from the movie title to scroll the List to that file.

Seems pretty simple to me.

I thought TAF would already work that way. I mean, isn't the first match of TAF the first match from the selected item list onwards?

EDIT: just tried and nope, seems like TAF always starts matching from the top of the list.
Anyway, I'd support grindax wish because I really see the logic behind it.

[admin]

... seems like TAF always starts matching from the top of the list.

Uh, no. Gimme an example please.

[grindax]

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[admin]

I thought TAF would already work that way. I mean, isn't the first match of TAF the first match from the selected item list onwards?

EDIT: just tried and nope, seems like TAF always starts matching from the top of the list.
Anyway, I'd support grindax wish because I really see the logic behind it.

Thanks Marco, but just to clarify what I mean: TAF would first try to match what the user is typing with the beginning of filenames. Then, as the user keeps typing and TAF runs out of matches, it automatically converts into 'match anywhere' mode to see if it can find a match anywhere in the List. That way you can use TAF for quickly scrolling down to an area based on a starting letter, but in cases where you continue typing more characters (like when you remember a unique word in the movie title), a match can be found elsewhere.

It would not work I think. Once you type the first letter of your intended "match anywhere" pattern XY would take it as another match-beginning character.

[grindax]

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[admin]

That's what I meant by too complex: nobody understands it.

[grindax]

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[TheQwerty]

grindax, you are not alone - I like the idea.

Don, think of it more as XY prioritizes matching from the beginning and only attempts to match anywhere if there were no matches at the beginning.

Given these items:
altar.txt
books.txt
t.txt
taco.txt

The user types 't' > XY focuses 't.txt'.
The user adds 'a' ('ta') > XY focuses 'taco.txt'
The user adds 'r' ('tar') > XY focuses 'altar.txt'.
The user is doing all of this within the TAF timeout.


Sure this might be confusing to some users, but I think it would be a very powerful option. Consider replacing the 'Match anywhere' option with a drop-down:

Match from:
-Beginning
-Anywhere
-Beginning then anywhere.

[admin]

But I tried to explain already that it will not work because of ambiguity. Try to find a real-world example and you will see it...

[TheQwerty]

But I tried to explain already that it will not work because of ambiguity. Try to find a real-world example and you will see it...

Unfortunately, the problem is not clear to me. I don't understand where the ambiguity is introduced.

[admin]

You use "t" to jump to the files starting with "t". Now you want to "match anywhere" from here, right? Say you want to match "app": You type "a"... wham, focus jumps up to the files starting with "a". So the whole "t" thing was pointless.

The ambiguity is that "a" can be a jump letter or the beginning of a multi-character pattern.