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Incremental Search / Type-ahead Find

Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2003 6:01 pm
by Jacob Carpenter
Searching the suggestions revealed one item matching "Incremental AND Search" [message]. Since this useful feature is not necessarily well-known, I figured I'd describe it:

Incremental Search / Type-ahead Find (as its known in Mozilla/Firebird) is a search that's only activated with a shorcut (Default: Ctrl+I in Visual Studio 02/03; '/' in Mozilla/Firebird). There's no dialog to fill in. You just start typing. As what you type matches in the document, the match starts selecting (and is scrolled into view if necessary). Once you've typed all you want to match, F3/Shift-F3 (for the aforementioned applications) cycle through the matches. If what you've typed ceases to match in the current document, there's usually a notification (in the statusbar, accompanied by some audio cue, too).

This feature is very useful for quickly locating things (function/variable definitions, a given xml element, that one id throwing the error, etc.) that you don't need wildcards/regular expressions to match.

If more description is needed on this feature, I'd be happy to supply it, but I'd also recommend trying it out in VisualStudio 2K2/2K3 (if you have it) or Mozilla/Firebird (which are free downloads [link], if you don't).

Jacob.

Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2003 9:24 am
by MiddleOfNowhere
Excellent idea. Opera 7 has a similar "Find in page" feature - couldn't live without it.

I'd love to see this in TextPad.

Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2003 9:48 am
by jhmagnus
Very useful, I would also like to see it in TextPad.

Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2003 7:40 pm
by dhayduk
Agreed. This is the one feature that I miss most from Emacs. Just hotkey and start typing...

Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2003 7:43 pm
by kaimiddleton
I think you have a great idea here. Why don't you edit your original post to add a poll and let's see how much action we can generate here. Remember that a poll should have five options in it (basically ranging from yes definitely (the top one) to "whatever" (the middle one) to no, definitely not on the bottom).

Great suggestion

Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2004 9:27 am
by jhmagnus
I vote for this!

Posted: Sat Jan 31, 2004 3:20 pm
by fthomas
Incremental search is a very nice feature: since I found it on emacs, I've difficulties to live without. Hopefully, Microsoft implemented it in its Visual Studio.

It's definitively a great feature, that I can vote for.

Posted: Sun Feb 01, 2004 10:31 am
by david12kw
Yes, this is such a cool way to search. It's the one thing I really miss from Emacs.

Posted: Fri Apr 16, 2004 1:47 pm
by MarkusB
The incremental search is really a very good function. I like to get such a feature in TextPad.

Posted: Thu Jul 01, 2004 4:52 pm
by roror
i can vote for it too

Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2004 11:32 pm
by gracefool

Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2004 3:51 am
by matthewlock
I would also like to cast my vote for incremental search. After using Visual Studio .NET and Firefox I can't live without it!

Posted: Sun Dec 05, 2004 9:46 pm
by geek_girl
I vote for this also. I'm considering switching over to emacs mainly because of this feature. Hopefully it will get added soon, because I'd prefer not to switch!

Posted: Mon Dec 06, 2004 12:41 am
by Bob Hansen
Kind of expensive, I think it was $50 when I got it some time ago.

But if you must have it now.....try Ultima Shell
==================
UltimaShell is a comprehensive enhancement and tool box for MS windows. It autocompletes words/phrases, autoexpands shorthands in any applications on MS Windows. It auto-learns new words while you type. It provides libraries for up to 10 western languages and most popular programming languages. UltimaShell supports multiple clipboard with appending mode copy and stored clipboard history file. URL aliasing enables you to access long and frequently used URL (web address / program / document / directory) by short alias. Embedded editing brings various text-processing functions to any standalone editors. Built-in commands provide great convenience for quick access to search engine, browser nagivation and computer management, etc. Quick-run dialog helps you run programs, open files and browse web sites with least trouble. UltimaShell includes handy shortcuts to shut down, log off, reboot computer, dial up, hang up, IE favourites, etc.