Re: [LONG] Some thougths and a patch for the search menu-bar functions

[Kim F. Storm]

Richard Stallman <address@hidden> writes:

> Each additional level of menu makes a command harder to invoke.
> It is a major practical nuisance.

I agree.

> 
> The current menu scheme puts many of the search commands in the menu 2
> levels down, and the rest at level 3.  By contrast, this scheme
>   [...]
> puts the most important commands 4 levels down.
> That is a big step for the worse.

Definitely.  But that doesn't mean that we cannot restructure the
Search submenus to make them more logical without increasing
the depth (quite the opposite!).

> We figured that people doing a search with the mouse would prefer to
> get something they are used to, and that people who want incremental
> search would invoke it from the keyboard.

That sound perfectly reasonable -- activating I-search through a menu
doesn't make much sense IMO.


Here is a proposal for a new organization which I find more intuitive:

First we put separate "Search" and "Replace" items directly on the
"Edit" menu; this is common practice in other editors:

 Edit
   ...
   Search >
   Replace >


The "Search" submenu first presents the non-interactive search
choices, then the tags search, and finally the Incremental search
which leads to a submenu with the I-search related searches

 Edit

    Search >  Forward String
              Backward String ...
              Forward Regexp ...
              Backward Regexp ...
              ------------------
              Repeat search           (string or regexp!)
              Repeat backwards        (string or regexp!)
              ------------------
              Search tagged files ...
              Continue search
              ------------------
              Incremental search > Forward String
                                   Backward String ...
                                   Forward Regexp ...
                                   Backward Regexp ...
        
    Replace > Replace String ...
              Replace Regexp ...
              -----------------------
              Replace in tagged files
              Continue replace



With this layout, all search and replace commands are on level 2
except for Isearch which is on level 3.

IMHO this is a change to the better - fewer levels overall and much
simpler to navigate than the current "Edit->Search" submenu.

WDYT?

-- 
Kim F. Storm <address@hidden> http://www.cua.dk