It seems that i keep coming back to FARR no matter what other software i try
However whenever i do there are some thoughts/ideas that i always have and would love to see implemented. Some probably more amcbitious than others.
1. Seeing as there are now a lot of awesome plugins for FARR it would be great if the plugin could specify the number of columns it returns/displays and their values. For example in the Process Kill plugin you could have columns for process name, memory, cpu usage etc. Likewise an itunes plugin could display track length, artist, album etc. Even more impressive would be an picture alias/plugin that allowed you to view thumbnails of your pics as well as size and dimensions. Implementing something like this i think would catapult FARR into an amazing tool.
2. Another feature that i sorely miss when using farr is some type of history that can be used on aliases as well as shared by several different aliases. For example if i have a keyword for Fandango and i search for "Iron Man" than wanted to check out some reviews on metacritic or imdb etc i would appear in the list. Another case for a history on a single alias could be a food menu site where you consistently search the same restaurants to get their number/menus etc. Lastly a great example for this would be a website alias where you could start typing in the name of the site you want to visit and it would pop up in the results.
3. With regards to the interface i think one nice option would be to add an icon to the left of the query box right above the search results which would reflect the icon from the first search result. Taking that one step further you could also display the name from the first result as well in a different color/font perhaps. I think this allows you visually to identify the result you are looking for quicker. I see this as a middle ground between using the small icon report, which i use as i prefer having more results with a larger query font, and the large icon slide.
4. A consistent approach to handling aliases and plugins regarding how you use and execute them. For example some plugins require you to enter a space, some a period, others a double &&. Hitting enter/tab would be one intuitive solution.
5. Regarding the interface implementation of the point above it would be great to be able to display which alias/plugin is currently being used or active in a more intuitive/attractive manner. For example lets say you are using the delicious plugin. Once you enter dlc the search results show tags and posts. When you select tags and hit tab the query box changes to dlc +tags and displays all the given tags it finds. Lets say you choose the software tag and enter farr now the query box shows dlc +posts :software farr. I think one idea could be to show some type of breadcrumb structure either on the status bar or preferably in a new area right above the query box and subsequently clearing the query box after a new crumb is added. A standard key such as esc could be used to go back a step and tab/enter could be used to move forward. So for the delicious plugin instead of having "dlc +posts :software farr" you would display something like dlc > posts > software above the query box and only farr in the query box. Another visual cue to inform you of which plugin/alias you were using would be to keep the same icon to he left of the query box as mentioned above.
Wow that turned out be a long post. Probably should have split it up in to different topics.
