Automatic completion mode

[Ingo Klöcker]

On Sunday 16 November 2008, Rafael Fernández López wrote:
> On Saturday 15 November 2008 23:35:17 Aaron J. Seigo wrote:
> > yes, this is highlight annoying. but doing the above would break
> > "kons<enter>" as Ingo pointed out already. i'll try krunner with
> > the Short Automatic completion and see if that fixes anything.
>
> Well, my questions here were more in the shape of the completion mode
> itself and its behavior, more than about krunner, where I just wanted
> to place an example, nothing more. I am not blaming krunner, I am
> blaming the way automatic completion works. If we fix automatic
> completion, we will fix krunner using automatic completion and the
> rest of things in the system.
>
> Is it _so_ bad having to press kons + right + enter ?

Look at your keyboard. Now you can easily answer this question for 
yourself. Pressing an arrow key requires your hand to leave its usual 
position, so yes, it is that bad to have to press an arrow key.


> You could 
> _really_ have an executable named "kons". Presuming that you won't is
> directly wrong, from my really personal point of view. And you can
> really lead to questions like: "wth, I wrote kons and a different
> program was executed, what is going on in here".

Aaron and me both wrote that there is "short automatic" which would 
solve this problem. Aaron even wrote that he is checking whether "short 
automatic" is a better default than "automatic".

Moreover, the line edit clearly shows the currently matching completion. 
It's not as if there was some magic going on the user couldn't 
understand easily.


> > one actual annoyance: pressing backspace deletes not the completion
> > text, but the last letter you typed! so you get:
> >
> > kon(sole)
> >
> > if i just want "kon", i have to press "Delete" .. Backspace deletes
> > the last letter instead. this is rather unintuitive imho. any
> > thoughts on making Delete == Backspace in these situations?
>
> If we go for the "right" arrow key and shift+enter approach, the text
> you typed is what should be removed (without touching the hint by
> auto completion).
>
> For instance:
>
> I write "kon", and I am suggested "konsole". I will note from here
> this as "kon#sole" separating by a "#" what I wrote and what auto
> completion mode did actually auto complete.
>
> If I backspace I get:
>
> "ko#nsole". Or even better, if I have another app starting with "ko"
> closer, it can even change, like this: "ko#oka".
>
> What is for sure IMHO is that we should only accept "kooka" under
> this situation if I do:
>
> - Right arrow press: now all text becomes "kooka" (nothing
> 'suggested' by auto completion, is like if the user had 'accepted'
> the completion).
>
> - Shift + enter: accept the enter event with completing first.
>
> - Plain enter: we run "ko", because "oka" was in gray, that means,
> suggested, but not accepted.
>
> You still gain the "completion" hint and speed, because you can write
> "kon" (3) + right (1) = 4 for "konsole" (6). Or even better: "konq"
> (4) + right (1) = 5 against "konqueror" (8). I still think you gain
> in general, and you won't annoy people that want to run shortest
> things like "foo" while on history exists "foobar".

I prefer the current behavior because at all times the line edit clearly 
indicates what input it will use when you press Enter. If there's a 
suggested completion then this completion will be used. If there's no 
suggested completion (because I pressed Backspace or Delete) then the 
typed text will be used. In any case, the currently visible text will 
be used.

FWIW, this is the wrong list to discuss this. Please move your 
discussion to the usability list.


Regards,
Ingo
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