[Design] Search - Separate CLI palette

[Mimi Yin]

Splitting this off into a separate thread.

On Feb 1, 2007, at 3:48 PM, D John Anderson wrote:

>> Well, one big difference between Chandler's pseudo CLI and real  
>> CLIs is that we're not displaying the results of the command in  
>> the same field as the command itself. We have the rest of the UI  
>> for that.
>>
>> I'm not sure why it's okay to load multiple commands into the  
>> palette, but it's not okay to include /Find in that list of commands.
>
> I was thinking of a palette that acted the same as the single line  
> text entry field, except that it contained space for more than one  
> line. As you typed new commands the old commands would scroll up,  
> giving you a history of previous commands you entered. Following  
> the conventions of other shells, typing up arrow might go back in  
> the command history so you could choose previous commands without a  
> lot of retyping. You could resize the palette to include as many  
> lines as you'd like: one or many. You could also add some UI to the  
> palette, e.g. some buttons, that would enter some common commands.  
> So in either the palette or the current search field I was  
> proposing displaying the results of the command in the application,  
> not the widget itself.
Yes, this is a nice idea and would grow to accommodate IM and chat as  
well. I can imagine it being useful integrated into the main window,  
perhaps at the bottom, underneath the summary and detail panes.

> So the issue isn't about multiple commands in the palette, it's  
> about not confusing the meaning of a search box by requiring that  
> you type "/search". I hoped to avoid this confusion by putting  
> quick entry in a different widget, one that worked even better for  
> quick entry than the search box, leaving search to be the familiar  
> search we all know and love.

I think this is the crux of the confusion. Ii don't think of the  
field in the toolbar as a search field. I think of it as a 'command- 
line' text field where search is one of the command options. Is it  
the rounded ends that are confusing the issue? We can change it to be  
a square field on Mac. I don't think there's a difference really for  
windows and linux.

I think the rounded looks nicer. Although I know it's the convention  
on Mac, I'm not sure how many users actually explicitly understand  
that. I think it's the magnifying icon and the word Search that clues  
people into the idea that a field is for search. But I'm not stuck on  
the rounded field.

Mimi