Re: [Ayatana] Integrating Application Search & Install

[Tyler Brainerd <tylerbrainerd@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, Apr 28, 2010 at 10:19 AM, Diego Moya <turingt@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On 28 April 2010 10:50, Tyler Brainerd wrote:
> If the goal of all this is to directly connect the user quickly with
> their files and programs, then adding programs that are not currently
> installed will only add clutter and messiness,

The application menu has also the goal to let the user discover the
applications available in the system.

I like the idea of showing installable applications in the search
results, but Tyler is right that it can hurt the primary goal of
opening common programs if done badly. I think showing a separate
panel for the software center results would be enough to distinguish
both use cases and reduce the possible confusion.

Or at the very least, restrict the number of visible options, or have it show options if there is no (or few) matches found on system. I still think, either way, the discussion here is suggesting something which has conflicting goals. Is it an app search or a file search? Is it currently installed apps or installable apps? Its going to create a really mess. Lets narrow the vision a bit, and then I think it will work.

In this note, we see in Windows a very clear application: The start menu is meant as a hub of applications, so pressing it and typing searches applications, not documents. Document names are often repetitive (I often name documents simply numbers, and identify them based on location in a folder) but application names make sense to search.