kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Chris Pavlina <pavlina.chris@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, Dec 18, 2015 at 09:40:29PM -0800, Henner Zeller wrote:
> On 18 December 2015 at 21:33, Chris Pavlina <pavlina.chris@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > I'm not going to argue about search methods, it'll suffice to say I
> > disagree. I don't _want_ to search my library your way, and yes, I
> > understand that it can work.
> >
> > I'm unconvinced that adding one option box is excessive complexity. It's
> > not in the main UI, it's in the preferences dialog. What's wrong with
> > preferences? Users can ignore those. Most do. Though the preferences
> > dialog does need to be reorganized.
> 
> The problem is, that people don't find it. They get frustrated because
> they want to search with regular expressions, but it doesn't work. And
> they never find the option to set it.

Somehow I don't think that wildcard/regex search is going to be a big 
advertised feature that all the kids will be flocking to kicad for. I 
also doubt that the sort of person who would want it is the sort of 
person who couldn't be bothered to look at the options.

> 
> If the dialog would do all matches in parallel and increases scores
> for each matcher that triggers, then you get all the simple matching I
> am proposing and all the extended regular expression searching that
> you want. And it will work automatically without anyone ever setting
> an option.

Yes, and clutters up the results with false matches, just like searching 
for "ATXMEGA*D3" by typing "ATXMEGA D3" does.

Seriously, what is it with this mailing list? Every time someone 
suggests a simple idea, everyone immediately piles on with their 
favorite way to overcomplicate it.

I just suggested adding this because I thought it'd be a simple addition 
that might add some utility for some people. Never imagined wildcards 
could be so controversial. Take it or leave it, I'm not going to keep 
revising it to make it more complex.

> 
> -h
> 
> >
> >
> > On Fri, Dec 18, 2015 at 09:19:54PM -0800, Henner Zeller wrote:
> >> On 18 December 2015 at 20:16, Chris Pavlina <pavlina.chris@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >> > As discussed earlier today, this patch adds support for both wildcard
> >> > and regular expression search to the eeschema component chooser. An
> >> > option is added to eeschema options to select the "Component search
> >> > method", which defaults to "Simple" (the original behavior). Regular
> >> > expression search was added as a "bonus", as it was used as a stepping
> >> > stone to wildcard search.
> >>
> >> Cool, I'll try it.
> >>
> >> BUT: I am skeptical I must admit, as adding these features that are
> >> undoublty more complicated for the non-software engineer to use and
> >> also to choose from. More choices for the user to handle, and I am not
> >> convinced yet that it is worth it.
> >>
> >> I would rather try to make the search as best as possible that a few
> >> words will bring the result. If it doesn't, then the scoring function
> >> needs to be tweaked. I am a big fan of simple user interfaces...
> >>
> >> Do you have some real world examples that are really hard to solve
> >> with simple string-matching and scoring of the result as it is now
> >> (the XMEGA example in the other thread can be done by just having a
> >> space between the xmega and d3, so this is not really a good example).
> >>
> >> Having simple user interfaces is hugely important IMHO, so we should
> >> add features and confusing user options only if the simple way of
> >> dealing with it can't do it.
> >>
> >> -h
> >>
> >> >
> >> > The existing behavior of Henner's component chooser wasn't changed, just
> >> > the matching function it uses.
> >> >
> >> > Following Wayne's suggestion, an EDA_PATTERN_MATCH base class is defined
> >> > in include/eda_pattern_match.h, and then:
> >> >
> >> > - EDA_PATTERN_MATCH_SUBSTR implements EDA_PATTERN_MATCH with the old
> >> >   behavior
> >> >
> >> > - EDA_PATTERN_MATCH_REGEX implements EDA_PATTERN_MATCH providing regex
> >> >   search via wxRegEx and wxRE_ADVANCED.
> >> >
> >> > - EDA_PATTERN_MATCH_WILDCARD extends EDA_PATTERN_MATCH_REGEX,
> >> >   translating a wildcard string to a regular expression and then loading
> >> >   it into the latter. This allows the nice, fast, wxString-compatible,
> >> >   and well tested regex search to be reused for wildcard search.
> >> >
> >> > --
> >> > Chris
> >> >
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> >> >