Author Topic: some suggestions about FARR (Read 13774 times)

zhouzh2 · « **on:** July 06, 2008, 03:14 AM »

Great software

1. I hope FARR can put search bar into the taskbar, like google desktop does

2.hope FARR also searches the target file name of a .lnk file.
For example, when I type "notepad", FARR did not list the windows notepad, because in my chinese system this .lnk is called "记事本",
same to the "calc.exe".
of course i can change the filename of the .lnks, or change settings in FARR., but wouldn't it be nice that FARR can automatically searches the target file names of start menu?

best wishes, i love this tool! great job:D

mouser · « **Reply #1 on:** July 06, 2008, 04:32 AM »

Welcome to the site zhouzh2

Your #1 suggestion has been made by quite a few people -- i'm afraid it's not possible currently. I haven't ruled it out but there are some complications with doing it and so it's not at the top of my list.

The #2 suggestion is a very good one; in fact i added code to do this at one point, BUT i'm afraid it's going to have to wait until FARR gets optional indexing support, which is planned. This is because it would simply be too cpu and disk intensive to resolve all the shortcuts live during search.

zhouzh2 · « **Reply #2 on:** July 06, 2008, 11:27 AM »

Hmmm.....Actually i don't like indexing, it just slowes down my computer...
i think quick non-indexing search is FARR's advantage and feature, that's why i choose it.

or maybe there are other solutions--
1. when no matches, simply add "run " before the word, in this way FARR can replace win+R , and in the future put "run (keyword)" into the searching list
or
2. maintain a build-in list doing following things:
notepad -run notepad
cmd -run cmd
calc -run calc
paint -run mspaint
msconfig -run msconfig
regedit -run regedit
shutdown -shutdown computer
reboot -reboot computer

i know it's easy to config FARR to do the aboves, JUST thinking of build-in these things would be better

question: can i set the hotkeys to forms like "shift"+"alt" or double press "ctrl"???because in laptops there is no "Break" key, the "Break"="Fn"+"Delete", which are faraway from each other... i think double press a single key might be a better way

actually FARR works perfect to me

just hoping FARR to be more perfect

mouser · « **Reply #3 on:** July 06, 2008, 11:34 AM »

1. when no matches, simply add "run " before the word, in this way FARR can replace win+R , and in the future put "run (keyword)" into the searching list

This is possible using a little-known trick (I plan to make it easier to use in the future).

There is a special alias you can create in FARR called the "noresults" alias, which can be used to tell FARR how to handle what happens when the user hits Enter and no results are shown.

Go to your myalias.alias file in the ALIAS tab, and create an alias like this:

Screenshot - 7_6_2008 , 11_33_38 AM.png

Then if you type something and hit enter and no results are shown, the program will be launched as if using the run command.
(test it by typing notepad.exe and then enter).

mouser · « **Reply #4 on:** July 06, 2008, 11:36 AM »

2. maintain a build-in list doing following things:

once you learn how to create aliases you will be able to set those up easily, and many from your list do already exist in some alias pack (like the shutdown ones), BUT your idea of adding those as defaults is a good one.

mouser · « **Reply #5 on:** July 06, 2008, 11:38 AM »

question: can i set the hotkeys to forms like "shift"+"alt" or double press "ctrl"???because in laptops there is no "Break" key, the "Break"="Fn"+"Delete", which are faraway from each other... i think double press a single key might be a better way

i have a laptop with same issue -- i changed the FARR hotkey to ALT+BACKSPACE, which my mind can adjust to.

there is no built-in way in FARR to use double taps of keys BUT i wrote a special program just for dealing with such special hotkeys in any program, it's called: TapTap Hotkey Extender.

herojoker · « **Reply #6 on:** July 06, 2008, 12:32 PM »

Regarding the search input for the task bar: I think this should only implemented as an additional application that communicates with FARR, not a feature of FARR itself.

zhouzh2 · « **Reply #7 on:** July 06, 2008, 12:57 PM »

thanks for your replies

i learned a lot here. maybe i should spend some time reading your help file

however, my "noresults" alias doesn't work.... just nothing happen when i hit Enter...
æœªå‘½å.PNG

is there any thing wrong?

zhouzh2 · « **Reply #8 on:** July 06, 2008, 01:04 PM »

screenshot

mouser · « **Reply #9 on:** July 06, 2008, 01:08 PM »

screenshot does not appear to be uploaded.

kartal · « **Reply #10 on:** July 06, 2008, 01:29 PM »

very slick. If this is not in the help file probably it should be in there

1. when no matches, simply add "run " before the word, in this way FARR can replace win+R , and in the future put "run (keyword)" into the searching list

This is possible using a little-known trick (I plan to make it easier to use in the future).

There is a special alias you can create in FARR called the "noresults" alias, which can be used to tell FARR how to handle what happens when the user hits Enter and no results are shown.

Go to your myalias.alias file in the ALIAS tab, and create an alias like this:
(see attachment in previous post)
Then if you type something and hit enter and no results are shown, the program will be launched as if using the run command.
(test it by typing notepad.exe and then enter).
-mouser (July 06, 2008, 11:34 AM)

skajfes · « **Reply #11 on:** July 07, 2008, 12:48 PM »

It is in the documentation that comes with farr

zhouzh2 · « **Reply #12 on:** July 21, 2008, 04:00 AM »

i solve the problem, i just notice that i input "$$1|" instead of "$$1", which makes this aliase doesn't work at all

yet somehow i start wondering these days about if FARR can support "special characters" in “hotkey configuration”-“Test for search edit box”, for example,character“\n”stands for user press "enter".
i set win+N brings up FARR with "run notepad" in search edit box, but still i need to press "enter" , but if FARR has the abality to understand "run notepad\n", win+N will brings notepad instantly,“Microsoft Office Word\n”then win+W brings FARR and FARR opens WORD automatically,which could be an amazing new feature of FARR with endless possibilities.

hope my suggestion helpful

mouser · « **Reply #13 on:** July 21, 2008, 04:03 AM »

Hmm that is a great idea about \n but i wonder if it might even already work.. try it and see

zhouzh2 · « **Reply #14 on:** July 21, 2008, 04:32 AM »

it just ...WORKS!

:-*GREAT!

mouser · « **Reply #15 on:** July 21, 2008, 05:26 AM »

i should mention this in the help file since it was just recently added based on user requests.

herojoker · « **Reply #16 on:** July 21, 2008, 06:43 AM »

Mmh, this seems to work only when the used alias group has only one entry.
Example: I have groups called "maps" and "transl", the first contains only Google Maps currently, the second contains several translation services.

I created a hotkey with text "maps %cliptext%\n" and "transl %cliptext%\n".
The first one immediately opens google maps with the selected text, the second one remains on the alias group list; I have to press enter to get a result.

In my opinion the first result should be launched automatically if the corresponding option is set (the first one of the following).

"Always launch first result on hitting Enter", "If there is only one result, launch it when hitting Enter" [ok, the latter doesn't change the behaviour here], "Stop search on exact regex match" are on, "Stop search on exact alias match" is off (no combination of the last two options changes the behaviour).

mouser · « **Reply #17 on:** July 21, 2008, 06:51 AM »

i could do this.
perhaps what i could do is check for \n\n
if the second \n is found it will launch first result of an alias if there are multiple.

ok?

herojoker · « **Reply #18 on:** July 21, 2008, 07:06 AM »

Hmm, it would be ok but using the option "Always launch first result on hitting Enter" seems to be more appropriate.
IMHO FARR should behave exactly as the user had manually entered the text and pressed enter. From a coder's point of view: The actual launching process shouldn't be different! For example the way how FARR is started causes FARR to add/replace some text to a $variable (IIRC there is an option to automatically insert the last used command; this should use the same mechanism! It's your work to determine the priorities).
Then the contents of $variable until the first \n (or if not present the end of $variable) are inserted into the input (which automatically causes the search) and if a \n was present the Enter key should be simulated.
Perhaps you could realize this with a kind of command stack on which you store the actions to do (if you use object oriented programming you can use objects containing commands to execute).
Split $variable into certain tokens, then process these tokens one after another: Normal text adds TextInput to the stack, \n causes cancelling the token processing and adds WaitUntilReady and LaunchResult to the stack.
Then run all command objects stored on the stack...

mouser · « **Reply #19 on:** July 21, 2008, 07:18 AM »

you have a point there, ok ill do it your way.

herojoker · « **Reply #20 on:** July 21, 2008, 07:29 AM »

Notice my updated answer...

mouser · « **Reply #21 on:** July 21, 2008, 10:35 AM »

i had to upload a farr update since i forgot to change the version number -- so i went ahead and added this \n thing to launch first alias always, let me know if it works ok.

herojoker · « **Reply #22 on:** July 21, 2008, 11:00 AM »

Yep! It works for me, but it might not do so for others (in the desired way) because you ignore the options "Always launch first result on hitting Enter" and "If there is only one result, launch it when hitting Enter".