Quick search in lists [DONE]

[sasha]

I'm often using "Quick Search" with "Soft filtering" disabled and "typing view" enabled. (As you type, this removes items from the panel's view that don't match the string you typed in.) IMHO, one of NC's best features.

It would be great if the same functionality also was available in lists (e.g. "Go -> Quick lists -> ..." and "View -> Left/right panel -> Change folder..."). Currently, cursor positioning after typing works only at the beginning of a string. As my lists are long, reducing the entries as you type some characters just like in a panel would help a lot to speed the use case up. This could be an optional setting.

Thanks!
Sasha

[mike]

Hi sasha!

This idea looks great and I like it. However, I have some doubts that Cocoa's menu system will let me to intercept key strokes while menu is shown.
(current implementation of quick lists relies on standard menu system solely)
Have you seen any examples of such on-the-fly filtration of menu items in any mac software?
Any hints might help a lot.

Mike.

[sasha]

Hi Mike,

I did some research on that but unfortunately I couldn't find any app where this is done. Still I think this would really be useful. Hope you can make that work somehow.

Sasha

[sasha]

Now that NC can manage favorites, I'm using lists even more often, especially F1/F2 and Cmd+3.

As my lists have a lot of entries, a Quick Search (as implemented for the panels) would be very nice help navigating in lists. That's why I'm carefully pushing this thread up again

[mike]

Ok, I agree - I have the same issue.
I have a pretty clear picture of what has to be done - just need some time to implement it

Currently I'm working on a built-in Dropbox client for NC (new VFS), and it turns out to be an absurdly complex task, especially writing a custom asynchronous FIFO streaming

[mike]

I've decided to take a short break and switch the to quick lists filtration.
Surprisingly enough, I've managed to crack it!
With some hacking NC can now filter already shown menus via the keyboard input.
The downside here is that this method is based purely on hacking, but since Apple's official position is like "if you want more from the menu system - then go on and write your own", I think it's better at the moment.

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Screen Shot 2017-04-08 at 15.35.21.png (97.33 KiB) Viewed 23044 times

[warpkanal]

Looks quite nice!
If possible (maybe through "hacking") I'd prefer if the filter element only shows when having typed a character (similar to the quick search in the file list).
Also if possible (maybe through "hacking") I'd prefer if the first element is already selected when hitting CMD+3, this saves at least one arrow down key press when using arrow keys to select the desired entry.
But as said, UI-wise it looks really nice!

[mike]

If possible (maybe through "hacking") I'd prefer if the filter element only shows when having typed a character (similar to the quick search in the file list).

Understand this point, that's possible to do.
I'm actually a bit afraid of that, if implemented that way, this feature might be missed at all.

Also if possible (maybe through "hacking") I'd prefer if the first element is already selected when hitting CMD+3, this saves at least one arrow down key press when using arrow keys to select the desired entry.

I'll dig around this one.
Obviously, there's no "legal" way to manipulate a menu's position, but perhaps there's some backdoor.

[warpkanal]

I'm actually a bit afraid of that, if implemented that way, this feature might be missed at all.

True, however I think NC has with it's rather empty toolbar a lot of features that can be missed

On the other hand I liked Crax' approach on favorites: the first element is always selected, management or configuration items are put at the bottom so they don't interfere with what you do 99% of the time with the favorites list: selecting an entry.

crax_favlist.png (22.85 KiB) Viewed 23038 times

(although Crax favorites don't have the beaufitul number shortcuts, I use them most of the time in NC).

I think my (personal) preference of having the filter either hidden by default or placed at the bottom, is that I rarely have more then 10 favorite locations, hence I expect that I'm not going to use it often, but let's see

[mike]

Ok, added another hack to manipulate a menu's position - minus one key to press.
My Sin-O-Meter went thru the roof this day

Good point about the toolbar, however I prefer the word "laconic" instead of "empty"
Speaking seriously, I want to add toolbar buttons for main functionality at some point, but what worries me the most is an amount of icons needed for that. And these damn icons are bloody expensive.