Add wildcard search to Find and Replace in EESchema

[Art]

It would be great to have this capability to be able to re-anotate only certain components or rename only certain net names etc. For example if I try to re-anotate only the test points in the schematics which are named TP#### I can't replace them with TP? If I try to do replace TP*** with TP? it just doesn't find any that would match that search criteria and if I do replace TP with TP? the end result looks like TP?### which you can't use to re-anotate those components. The logic of find and replace interface is kind of wonky too, not what a normal user is used to. First to you have to click Find and only after the first hit it will allow you to do Replace All.

[Chris Pavlina (pavlina-chris)]

Given the recent addition of wildcard search to the component selector and the reusable EDA_PATTERN_MATCH class that was introduced, this could be a useful thing to have. However, as it's a destructive operation, I'd not want to do it without some way for the user to be presented with a list of changes that will be made to check over first.

[Art (diametrix)]

The list can be extensive and not informative. This is a standard operation for any other editor (i.e. text editor, code editor etc.) When you write code and want to replace a name of the variable in all the files in your project, does it give you complete list of all the changes? As far as destructive goes, that's why you have Undo functionality.

[Chris Pavlina (pavlina-chris)]

EDA/CAD software does not typically behave like a text editor. Efforts to make the user aware of the effects of an automated operation are common. Look at the "Proposed Change List" used in the annotation tool and elsewhere in Altium: http://techdocs.altium.com/display/ADOH/Understanding+Design+Annotation

[Art (diametrix)]

Technically EDA tool is a text editor with a GUI that hides it, but that's besides the point. It seems that KiCad developers have no qualms mimicking behavior of other unrelated packages. For example here (http://www.ohwr.org/projects/cern-kicad/wiki/UI_improvements#Layout-editor) is an excerpt of an explanation why you can't delete a track without leaving track mode in the new canvas:

"The main reason behind the current implementation is that vast majority of successful drawing software (e.g. Corel,
Adobe, GIMP, Inkscape) offer tools that perform exclusively a single operation (either add or remove tracks, not
both at the same time). The new tools are trying to mimic behaviour known from other widely used software packages,
so KiCad becomes more intuitive to use."

If you ask me, logic behind of an EDA tool is much closer to that of a text editor than a graphics editor. That's when we talk about general board layout operations. Here we are actually talking about text editing within the boundaries of an EDA tool. What is wrong with applying text editing common practices to actual text editing in any other tool? It's like saying that delete button in your keyboard should not delete text if you use it in KiCad because user should be aware that he can ACTUALLY delete something if he uses it.