[wingide-users] search/replace revisited...again

[Danny Bloemendaal]

And it's also very buggy. Right now it won't search at all anymore. If 
it finds the first occurence, I can stand on my head but it refuses to 
search any further.

Danny Bloemendaal wrote:
> Hi folks,
> 
> I keep complaining about the search/replace implementation. Today again, 
> I had trouble to do the most simple replacements. Why can't we get this 
> right!? It's so freaking important that this works right and right now 
> it's so far off of being useful at all.
> 
> This is what I try to do (yep... it can't be any simpler):
> 
> I am in a jscript function and there is a variable j I want to replace 
> with something else. My cursor is just above the line containing the 
> first 'j' I'm looking for. So, I click on the search/replace tab, select 
> Interactive Replace. Then I type in the search: field 'j'. And there it 
> happens... I jump to a totally different place in the code immediately!! 
> What the h...! Where am I? I just want to start from where I was.
> 
> It is totally wrong to jump around while I type my search string. DON'T 
> DO THAT!!!! One of the most important things is to NEVER jump to another 
> place in the code unless the user specifically wants that and can 
> predict what will happen. Now I'm lost. In fact, in my situation here, I 
> only want to replace the 'j's in one function so what on earth makes you 
> think I want to jump to a completely other function/location??? Now I 
> have to search the code first to see my starting point again. So I click 
> the down arrows a few times until my first 'j' is highlighted.. but 
> oops.. I clicked one time too many. So, the second 'j' is selected.  And 
> then what? I jump over my first search target so...click up again? Ok I 
> click up and it selects the first 'j' I want to replace. I click Replace 
> and ...ouch... there it jumps somewhere upwards...to...yes... somewhere 
> I don't want to be again...mmm... search downwards again to ....etc..
> 
> It's so wrong!!
> 
> This jumping around makes me really reluctant to use search/replace at 
> all. I'm actually afraid of it. No control to do the simplest thing. I'm 
> scared I might even lose things.
> 
> Why does it have to be this way? To begin with, TURN OF THE AUTO 
> START!!! I will tell WinG when to start searching. I will let it now 
> when I have phrased my search string. Don't touch my cursor while I am 
> thinking/typing!!!
> 
> Then, make a visible switch/checkbox that indicates the search direction 
> (not in the options dropdown!!). When I check it, don't do anything. 
> Again: DON'T TOUCH MY LOCATION until _I_ say you can!! With this switch 
> I can alway see and predict what will happen when I click Replace.
> 
> Sorry about my rant but I'm really frustrated. For ages, searching and 
> replacing in Wing is a big mess, a usability nightmare. And this issue 
> above is only a small part of what is wrong with this. I'd love to dive 
> more into this if you like but please please please fix this.
> 
> Danny.
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