Latest FARR v2.00.140 ALPHA PREVIEW Release - Aug 15, 2007

[mouser]

also, how do i turn off the frightening big bold text on the edit line?

-lanux128 (December 25, 2006, 10:59 PM)

i was afraid not everyone would love that.. looks like i will have to add an option to go back to normal..

[mouser]

I can't tell you all how helpfull it is to have your bug reports and suggestions.. Really makes it fun.

ps.
Josh found another real bug: the directory searching stuff has messed up any aliases with / and \ in them, so you can no longer type: "http://www.amazon.com" and be offered to browse to it, since the regex never sees the // any more.  will be fixed in next update.

[lanux128]

I can't tell you all how helpfull it is to have your bug reports and suggestions.. Really makes it fun.

-mouser (December 26, 2006, 01:35 AM)

glad to hear that, mouser..

btw, my rationale behind the copy path action is mentioned here in this thread.

but please disregard it because i feel that the Ctrl+C shortcut is sufficient enough..

[JennyB]

1. Directory searching is great. Very handy to use Right arrow (easier than Alt+Right) to browse into a folder. The Left arrow doesn't work as well because you have to go down into the search results to use it, and if there are no search results then you can't do that, so it's easier just to get in the habit of using Alt+Left.

-jdmarch (December 25, 2006, 10:23 PM)

I'm beginning to think that directory browsing should be handled slightly differently. Sometimes I want a file and I can't remember its name, but I sort of know the name of either the directory or another file in it. So I look for that select it and...

Left or right arrow should now bring up a list of *all* the file names in that directory.  That should be faster than the search FaRR does at present, which in practice brings up just ten from the same list.  Now you can browse around using the just the arrow keys. Left arrow selects the first item in the parent folder.  Right arrow does nothing on a file or an empty folder, otherwise it opens the folder selects the first item in it. From the context menu you can do all the usual things, and if you need more details you can open the selected file or folder in a file manager.

Focus doesn't go to the search window until you type a printable character, which begins a new FaRR search rooted in that directory.

[jdmarch]

You actually dont need to use the * with folders or files, it will find patterns that have just the first few letters already.  the only time to use * is when you want like *.mp3 file patterns.  otherwise just do ABC and FARR interprets that as *ABC*.

-mouser (December 26, 2006, 01:07 AM)

Understood! (That's what has made FARR so user-friendly all along.) But now with the universe of FARR-accessible folders and files so much larger, it becomes useful at times to do explicit narrowing of the search, with the most common two examples being your example (*.xxx) and mine (XXX*). So why not have wildcard searches include both files and folders? Folders ending in *.xxx are extremely rare, so this capability would not interfere with your example.

[jdmarch]

I'm beginning to think that directory browsing should be handled slightly differently.

-JennyB (December 26, 2006, 12:14 PM)

I like this idea! Is there a downside?

[tonyp]

lanux128, could you tell me what skin you're using?
Some thoughts from a bit of playing with Alpha 7:

It's surprisingly fast, directory searching works far better than I imagined.

I'm very glad by default it opens up the standard folder view like you'd get from browsing by "my computer" rather than Windows Explorer with the 2 pane view.  I've never liked that view, yet so many launcher programs use solely that.

Tab auto-complete is great.

It's a little confusing at first on how to navigate to a root, ie C:\ (alt+enter), so you may want to make this more clear or work with a standard enter.

I will definately be using FARR 2 over FARR 1!  Great improvements all around.  Seems stable to me so far, no bugs yet.

File explorer wish list:
--

It's tempting to try and use FARR as a file explorer, because it's so handy and works so fast.  There's been some good suggestions here on doing that.  Things that would also interest me, perhaps things that wouldn't work in general, but just throwing them out there:

Though 9 results are perfectly fine, it'd be nice to be able to scroll down to get more results as needed if possible.  Search for all matches can be pretty slow going.

I'm a little curious how when I type a directory, say C:\downloads\, it decides what 9 to show by default?  I'm guessing it's by alpha.  It would be nice, at least I think, to be able to sort by last modified.  Typically that's what I'm looking for when going to any directory.

Delete via keyboard key would perhaps be nice, if possible.
(Also just noticed the "shell context menu" option, that's really nice.)

Visuals:
--

I'm sorry to say I have to agree, the big bold font on a plain window background isn't too appealing to me.  It's counter intuitive to how input boxes usually work.

I'd go with either the original default icon, or the square-man icon.  Many of the new icons seem to have white pixels around the edges and it looks a bit unprofessional.  Perhaps its because I use a slim taskbar.

I also feel the skin should not colorize the results by default.

[lanux128]

lanux128, could you tell me what skin you're using?

actually that is a WinXP theme - Royale - a new theme by Microsoft..

[Armando]

I like the new FARR very much.
The “folder Search” capacity is *great*.
The only thing I might still want or miss is the ability to “find” misspelled files or folders (i.e. : xeplo = explorer) and... even to use it more efficiently with a voice recognition software...
Apart from that, it’s really almost perfect as it is. Of course, more days of testing will either confirm that or give me ideas…

Thanks for a great app.

 

Armando

[Armando]

One comment.... :  FARR v2.00.07 uses much more RAM : more than 28mb at the moment.
Previous version (1.10?) was more like 8-9mb. Personally, I really liked the fact that it was light.
Thanks,
Armando

[mouser]

There's nothing about the new FARR that should use more memory, but there is a new option that tries to let FARR use more memory if it is available; you can change this easily, by unchecking the option in General settings tab, and then minimizing the program to the system tray:

[Armando]

Many thanks Mouser. That was it... 

the more I use FARR the more i like it, even after more than 6 months!!... more & more & more... 

By the way... Anybody sees an obvious speed increase in keeping FARR in RAM (with the above mentioned option)?

Armando

[Armando]

I am partial to the blue F. That or the winman. Great icons!

-Josh (December 24, 2006, 04:04 PM)

I like the blue F too.

[tonyp]

You may consider this a light bug, but I don't think the "calc" script works properly anymore with directory search.  "calc 5+5" works, but "calc 5/5" will start searching instead.

[mouser]

thanks tony - yep, it will be fixed in new version - seems the new directory searching messed up aliases somewhat.

thank god for all you alpha-beta testers.

[TucknDar]

Loving FARR v2 after only a little while!

A few remarks though:

1) The missing input box and the bold text... OK, you get the picture

2) I would like to be able to sort the columns. I like to display all available columns in the FARR window, but I'd like the "Score" column to be to the far right.

3) Right-clicking the "column-bar" brings up the FARR context menu... but for which entry? I know from trying (and through a bit of common sense), that the context menu is that of entry no.1 by default (or selected entry), but there isn't really any way of knowing. I don't think the context menu should display at all if no entry is selected, unless it was a menu that would let you sort the columns (see point 2 above ) or do other FARR-related configurations.

4) Obviously I prefer my own icon . To be honest, it's not the best looking of the bunch, so not really default icon-material, but I made it, so I'll definitely use it. Thanks for including it!


I had a weird thing happening, where entries would disappear although I never told to delete them. I can't reproduce this now, so I can't rule out the possibility that this bug lies somewhere between keyboard and chair I'll investigate further, though.

Thanks for some great work, mouser, I'll be looking forward to the finished version!

[mouser]

entries would disappear

entries from what section?

i obviously need to make an option to put back the old input box.

thanks for the other bug reports, i'm going to try to get out a new version this week, lot's of little bugfixes needed.

[TucknDar]

entries from the result list. It would appear that I selected the option to remove the entry from launch list, but I'm pretty sure I didn't.

Anyway, as I said, I can't reproduce it, so might be my mistake.

[tonyp]

thank god for all you alpha-beta testers.

-mouser (December 31, 2006, 06:51 AM)

We're all happy to help, and thank you for both the preview and the continued work on FARR.

[Armando]

Hi mouser!

Yes... thank you for the preview and the work on FARR!!!

i wonder if you could explain in more details what's the function of the " \ " caracter... Of course, I understand that it's to specify the search type. But, I don't always get the results I'm expecting depending on where I put the " \".

But ... Example :

1- If I put it at the begining of the expression " dow\dow " and NOT at the end (" \dow\dow "), I get the same thing than
2- If I don't put it at the begining or at the end ( " dow\dow " ). But,
3- If I put it at the begining and at the end of the "expression" ( "\dow\dow\" ), I don't get anything. why?

Many many thanks.

Armando.

[mouser]

Read the help file page on directory searching!

the \ is used to specify DIRECTORY patterns to look in.

there are a few special rules though:
the \ at the end means only display directory names in results.

the \ at the begining is like typing C:\ i think (if my memory serves me correctly).

so when you do \dow\dow\
it is looking for only folders matching c:\*dow*\*dow*\

farr behaves differently if you start with a real path like c:\ or \
it will only look where you tell it.

but if you do like dow\dow
then it is going to look for *\*dow*\*dow*

which can take a long time and search everywhere..

[Armando]

Thanks Mouser. I actually carefully read the help file before asking my question...
I do understand the folder thing.

But there are still cases where folders don’t appear the way I expect, and I don’t understand why... I'll try my best to explain.

1- If I write “\dow\dow\”  I don't get anything ; even though there are some folders there. FARR should at least give me “E:\Downloads\Downloads complets\” or “E:\downloads\downloads complets\-PROGRAMMES INSTALLÉS-\”. No? (Unless it’s looking only in C:  which would be surprising since, even with the \ at the beginning, FARR also looks in E: : see next point)

3- If I write \do\d\ it’s a different story. I do get a little something ( in E: and C: )… and not only am I getting something, but I’m getting directories that go deeper than expected if I follow what happens in point 1 (C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\My AutoMate Tasks\). And you say it should be the same than "c:\*do*\*d*\". But FARR shows nothing.

Let's take another similar case to verify that “when you do \dow\dow\ it is looking for only folders matching c:\*dow*\*dow*\”. Since neither gives any results, let’s pick an expression that should work : \doc\e\ and c:\*doc*\*e*\
c:\*doc*\*e*\  doesn’t give me one result, and \doc\e\ does give me few results. Why?

4- Finally, You say dow\dow is like *\*dow*\*dow* but it doesn’t give the same results. (see Screenshots)


So… I still don’t understand exactly what’s happening.

Thanks.

P.S. : sorry for my english. It’s not my first language.

[mouser]

it seems i was probably wrong about the starting \ restricting it to c:\

to speed things up farr also does handle * stuff in dir names, i was just using them as a way of explaining what it does, dont actullay type those in your search.

in general what it does is this:
IF it thinks you are specifying an exact path, like
C:\program files\....
then it will ONLY search there.

if not, it will search all your normally specified search directories.

so the first thing it does it tries to grab the left most eact path match and start there.

so if you type
c:\Program Files\ad\acro

it finds "C:\Program Files"
but not
it finds "C:\Program Files\ad\"

so it will search everything in C:\Program Files

ill have to study your other screenshots for more comments to make..

[jdmarch]

Hi mouser, it seems to me that the current new path search syntax might still be a bit arbitrary, more of a proof of concept than a tuned final product. When one syntactical element, like (apparently?) the forward backward slash here, is heavily overloaded wtih multiple meanings, there is a big risk of the kind of confusion that we see in the last few posts... and I think probably cause for big confusion on the part of users not so accustomed to syntactic precision as many of the testers here.

I have no real right to speak about this because I'm not yet offering a concrete suggestion, but that's my impression.

(January 2, 2007 corrected "forward slash" to "backward slash"... I would claim eggnog overdose but it wouldn't be true. Must just be fried brains.)

[DocSavage]

I just installed FARR. I know the interface is the last thing you want to think about, but on my system some of the text is clipped.
I attached a bit of a screeen capture.
dk