Stop FARR From Searching Further?

[J-Mac]

Hi mouser.

This is in reference to launching applications. More and more I find myself accidentally launching the wrong program with FARR. I type in the first few letters and after searching for a few seconds FARR seems to stop with its list of results. I see that the program I wish to launch is shown as #2 so I press "2" on the number pad. However just as I press it FARR suddenly adds some more results and changes the order, making result #2 a completely different item than the program I intended to launch. Of course if it is a program that is slow launching I have to wait for it before closing it and using FARR again.

How can I make sure FARR stops changing the search results before I commit to pressing a number key?

Also, FARR seems to be slower than it was in the past. I haven't changed any settings in it, but since there have been many updates to FARR I imagine that by not changing some settings I have unwittingly had the settings changed simply by virtue oif the updates' new default settings. Anything suggestions to make it fast for launching once again?

Thanks!

Jim

[TucknDar]

Pressing 'Esc' should stop the search.

[superboyac]

Pressing 'Esc' should stop the search.

I don't think that quite addresses the problem.

I've run into this a couple of times myself.  Maybe there could be an option added where farr stops searching after a set number of seconds.  Like 2 seconds.  and if you want more, then press some key.

[mouser]

Tuck's suggestion to hit escape should work, or you can hit the down arrow.
Superboy, i'm not sure people would like having to press a key to search further..

[superboyac]

Tuck's suggestion to hit escape should work, or you can hit the down arrow.
Superboy, i'm not sure people would like having to press a key to search further..

ok...I don't know anyway.  So if you press down, the searching stops?  I think I knew that...that's cool.  Works for me.

[J-Mac]

Tuck's suggestion to hit escape should work, or you can hit the down arrow.
Superboy, i'm not sure people would like having to press a key to search further..

I would!!

Actually I knew the Esc key would stop it, but to be honest I hate the darned Esc key - all the wayyy up there, right next to the Arctic Circle, I believe. 

I wouldn't mind a user-configurable time limit as SB-AC suggested, or something similar that doesn't add yet another key-press.

Thank you.

Jim

[mouser]

another alternative would be to stop search on press of alt or ctrl or shift key.. that might help i think.

[joshuawood]

Or just simply stop on pressing one of the F-keys. That's what I use to launch programs on my laptop (no discrete numpad). I have accidently launched the wrong program due to this behaviour on a few occassions also. The problem however lies in the event process. When you press say an F key, that event might be behind the update list event and redraw event, so in this case the wrong program will still get launched, even though at the time of the F key press it appears to be correct. I doubt there is much you can do to solve this. It's simply how things work.

[mouser]

yes, though if you find yourself having this problem, moving to a 2 step launch process:

• hit a key to stop search then hit a key to launch.

may solve the problem because it gives you just enough milliseconds to stop yourself from launching if you notice the results changing while you were pressing the stop search key (down arrow, escape, etc.)


actually i suppose maybe FARR could be made to address this problem slightly couldn't it..
if FARR updates the display, and you hit launch within some small time window of the update, FARR could detect that right?
and then check if the item you want to launch got moved down during the update.
if so, FARR could either adjust it's guess of what you REALLY wanted to launch
or.. stop searching, beep and let you know that your launch request was interrupted by a late breaking update of list and you should choose again.
kind of cool idea.


Example:
Result list shows:
1. notepad
2. wordpad
3. ideapad

you hit the 2 key to launch wordpad.
as you are moving to hit the 2 key, a new result sneaks in at location 2, so that new results are:
1. notepad
2. evilpad
3. wordpad
4. ideapad

normally farr would now launch item 2.  but in this case it knows that previous item 2 got shifted down a mere 100 ms before you hit the 2 key.

so it guesses that you could not have seen and reacted to this new number 2 so quickly.  therefore you PROBABLY meant to choose the PREVIOUS #2 (now #3), wordpad.

so it could just go ahead and launch wordpad.

OR it could simply stop searching, give you a little sound tone letting you know it didn't launch anything due to caution, and needs you to select what you want to launch again.


what do you think, is it a fun enough idea that it's worth implementing?  it would be optional of course, with user-selectable time window interval for this behavior.

[skajfes]

Great idea Mouser. I really like this one. Though, I have nothing against the current method - esc or down to stop search so it would be great that this one remains active all the time. I mean, esc always stops search. And additional option - what you just said - either launch what is currently at the selected number, launch what was at the selected number a configurable number of milliseconds, or beep (again optional!) and do nothing.

[joshuawood]

I like the idea of a beep and allow the user to key again, rather than guessing. Unless it could always guess correctly

[Nod5]

I like mousers idea above. I run into that problem now and then, especially when very soon after entering the searchphrase pressing enter to launch the first result.  I'd set it for 100 miliseconds or more and would opt out of any warnings. If there must a warning then some visual cue seems more fitting. Maybe the most subtle warning is best: just not launch any result and keep FARR open.