topbanner_forum
  *

avatar image

Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Did you miss your activation email?

Login with username, password and session length
  • Friday March 29, 2024, 2:49 am
  • Proudly celebrating 15+ years online.
  • Donate now to become a lifetime supporting member of the site and get a non-expiring license key for all of our programs.
  • donate

Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - Jay Levitt [ switch to compact view ]

Pages: [1]
1
One more thought about QuickSilver's adaptive scoring: It adapts not only to how often program #1 and #2 are run, but how often I use a given set of keystrokes to ACCESS those programs.

For instance, I use both Text Wrangler and the Network control panel on a regular basis.  So at first, pressing "N E T" or "T W" both chose Network as the first option, since Network is a more direct match for "T W" than Textwrangler is.  After a few launches, though, QS learned that "T W", to me, means "-T-ext-W-rangler", and no matter how often I launch Network with other shortcuts, that adaptation stays in place.  That's important.

2
By "F F", I mean "press the F key twice".  The first F shows me all apps with an F in them, with Firefox at the top; the second F narrows it to apps containing two Fs (since QS allows non-consecutive letter searches).  If I had an app "ffilemaker" it'd probably show up before Firefox a few times, since the F's are consecutive, but luckily I don't :)  It also nicely underlines the matching letters so I see why I'm finding things.

As for sorting vs. stable keystrokes: QuickSilver manages it because you DON'T use the number keys to launch the apps.  "F F ENTER" and I'm done, no matter where Firefox initially showed up under the "F" apps.  Also, it combines the dropdown box with the text-entry field, so the arrow keys work more sensibly.  I see now that FARR can in fact launch the first app by pressing ENTER, but it beeps at me, which indicates I did something wrong, and it seems to take a bit longer (maybe that's just the synchronous beep slowing things down).

I've tried the "bonus for already-launched apps", but it's pretty non-granular -  every app I launch gets the same 200 bonus.  I believe QS gives a most-frequently-used score instead.

And while caching launched apps is nice, caching SEARCHED apps would be better (absent pre-caching, of course), so that my common searches would be instant. Every time I press "F", it shows firefox instantly since I've used it, but then has to go load everything else.

Jay

3
i know that the mac world is gaga over quicksilver.  i think it's half just the normal mac fanaticism, but i know that quicksilver has some nice features - i'm very happy to implement them all in F+R in time, just let us know which features are wanted.

As a dual-platform user, the things I miss most from Quicksilver are, roughly in order:

1. Pre-searching/caching.  Quicksilver is INSTANT, even on my slow PowerBook.  FARR is not, even on my 2GB Athlon X2 4600+, even just limited to Start Menu and a few app folders.

2. Adaptive sorting.  QS learns which items I select and moves them to the top.

3. Better selection UI.  The large print on QS, combined with the fact that it pre-selects the most likely option, means I can launch apps with few keystrokes and no real brainpower: "F F <enter>" always gets firefox.  With FARR, I have to look at the cluttered display, find the app, and move to the number keys - and if I've added a new app, the old numbers change.

That's really all I miss; I don't use any of the fancy QS plugins, deep-searching, alternate actions, etc.  Unfortunately, #1 and #2 require some pretty hefty infrastructure changes that I think you've said can't really be done before FARR 3, so I'm always keeping my eyes out for a temporary substitute.

Pages: [1]