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FARR version 2 - discuss the best way to handle 'actions'

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mouser:
thank you for the links.. quite helpful..
i kind of like the idea of stacking actions and stuff.
im just resistent to all the need for the tabbing and stuff...

life would be easier if we insisted that the first word was always a verb.

so that you start farr, and the window shows a list of verbs like:

* Run
* Open
* Email
* Browse
* Google
* Define
* etc.....
then you type a verb (or part of it until you get a match) and then hit space key.

once a verb is selected, the rest of what you type will select from the search directories, searching as always,
OR act like a regular expression pattern match so you can type "email [email protected]" or "define subjunctive" as currently.

the key difference those is that it would INSIST that the first thing you do is select an ACTION, before file searching would begin, though we could make this as simple as typing r or l or . for default action of "launch/run"

so to launch photoshop you would bring up farr,
and see a list of actions:

* r - run/launch - run or launch a program or document
* d - delete - delete a file
* g - google - do a google search
* define  - define a word using dictionary
* email - send an email
then you would type r which would restrict action list to the only matching r command, which would be narrowed down in the results, then you hit space,
and some queue text would say "Run.." and then the results box would clear and youd' start typing "photo" just like you do now in farr, and then hit enter when you find it, so your total typing would be:
"r photoshop"

or you could have done "run photoshop"

or "run photo shop"

the point to this method is requiring that the first word, and ONLY the first word be used to select an action, from some list (predefined and editable by user);
and only after an action is selected does the program shift into multi word search files mode.

-

the drawback is you need to know what you plan to do with the file before you start, and you can show just the context relevant actions for the object.
the advantage is if you know what you're doing you type very little with no crazy tabbing and right arrowing, it's all one smooth sentence.

mouser:
a way around the need to know the action ahead of time might be to let user type like:
find photoshop, launch

or
find photoshop, delete


the point being that the first "action" is a generic "find" and then the , says uses the file and perform context sensitive action "launch"
(ie after the , the results list would turn into a list of actions you can perform on the file, whereupon user types launch to select launch from that list).

jgpaiva:
Mouser, i like your last proposition. Specially this:
then you type a verb (or part of it until you get a match) and then hit space key.
-mouser (February 03, 2006, 03:14 AM)
--- End quote ---
But when it comes to running something, the user could define "run" alias to have a huge bonus, so as it would be always the first option, and so, he could just do :
{space}screen{enter}
to launch screenshot captor, right?
I only have one doubt. In your model, i think there will be the need to define if after that alias comes another alias or not. I say this because ther could be some alias that should have other alias after them.
I don't know if you're thinking about implementing this, but for the mp3 example up in this post, the user would do:
mp3{space}play{space}somemusic.mp3{enter}
to play it, or
mp3{space}enqueue{space}somemusic.mp3{enter}
to enqueue it.
(of course, this is only possible if the user defined play en enqueue, or Farr could somehow know what was the context menu for the file)

mouser:
yes, we could make space bar always default to meaning the default launch/run command.

so if you wanted to do what farr does now, youd start by hitting spacebar to choose the action "find/run/launch" and then you could start typing the filename patterns as normal.

and the list of actions shown at startup would never change order, they would be a fixed list that user could control.
they would also include "plugin" commands.

mouser:
interesting idea about nesting aliases.. this is getting a little interesting now, like the idea of treating actions like a decision tree..

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