Comment 146 for bug 1164016

I don't think it's true that an option is always good. I think software should endeavour to have decent default options, and if multiple use cases can be accommodated without an option, then that is preferable.

But you're right, a recursive search with ctrl-f vs typeahaed with simple typing would accomplish what everyone wants without an option.

I'm using the 'search in current folder only' setting in order to make the search more like typeahead, but this has the downside that I have to go into the settings to do an actual recursive search. In reality, recursive search is useful, and I want to use it, but it's different to typeahead and it's a shame I have to pick one or the other.

Ideally for me would be typing is just going to select things similarly to the old typeahead behaviour, and ctrl-f would do a search, either in the current folder or recursively depending on a checkbox that would ideally be in the main interface next to the search box rather than in the settings menu - since one often wants one or the other, it's not really an all-time preference.

I do think things will eventually go back this way. There is currently wasted effort trying to make search meet the requirements of type-ahead, whereas this would be unnecessary if typeahead existed too. Search is becoming a bit of a frankenstein trying to be both, with returning items from the current folder first, and having the search-in-current-folder-only setting being global. It should just be search - features should do one thing each instead of trying to please everyone.

I understand that search has been improved a lot in response to complaints about type-ahead being removed, and this shows that the devs are trying to meet people's use cases. But ultimately I think it is misguided and making the search implementation more complex than it otherwise would need to be. They are really are different features. So I know there has been a lot of vitriol over this issue, but I would encourage the nautilus devs to consider that they should become different features once again. Ctrl-f to search will not confuse anybody, type-ahead will not confuse anybody, whereas the current search is trying to be both and so can behave unexpectedly in terms of the order of search results and whether the search is recursive. Presumably this means code complexity too.

I also understand that the old type-ahead code was holding back the codebase and so it was desirable to excise it. I imagine new typeahead functionality, working as much as possible within the current codebase and its future directions, would be more amenable to nautilus dev approval than just restoring the old code. For example, we probably don't need the popup box in the bottom right as you type. It should just be type a few characters and have a few-second timeout before forgetting them, just like it is on other platforms such as windows and macos (I think). It seems similar to me to the case or removing nautilus handling the desktop. The code was holding back the codebase, but now we see that a desktop extension for gnome-shell is in development by the main nautilus dev.

I do think Nautilus can satisfy everyone's preferences here, and I do think typeahead will eventually be re implemented once tensions die down, especially if the nautilus devs can do it on their terms instead of rejecting a patch that just re-adds code that they don't want to maintain. A good typeahead implementation would even allow Nautilus to remove code that customises how the search works to make it more useful as typeahead - there would no longer be a need for that if typeahead were present in its own right.