Re: [dev] [surf] next release

On Wed, 21 Oct 2009, Julien Steinhauser wrote:

> On Wed, Oct 21, 2009 at 09:17:52AM -0400, Peter John Hartman wrote:
>>
>> What about cases in which one wishes to both type a few words and then paste? For example, when I want
>> to do a smart prefix search (via dmenu) on Bob McCrue (who sits in my selection buffer) but I also
>> want to do something like "University of Wherever" + "Bob McCrue" where the first part is something
>> I type in by hand and the second part is something I want to just "paste" in? The same argument
>> could be launched with respect to the find feature (which now utilizes dmenu).
>>
>> Or maybe you have something else in mind when you talk of "integrating into dmenu's cache"?
>>
>> Peter
>
> sselp does it also in case you wish to paste "and" write.
> Select something, then run echo `sselp` | dmenu, tab, space
> and what you write after that follows your selection,
> terminate dmenu and all is printed out.
>
>
>

Fair enough; but the functionality still seems a bit stifling, doesn't it? Particular problems
I would see with this (in terms of "workflow") are as follow.

Let's use the simple example of the surf-find function which now uses dmenu.

(1) You have to know in advance if you want to paste into the input field or not (on your proposal).
But sometimes we don't want what is in our x selection buffer to show up as an option in the find.
For example, if I have a huge chunk of code in my x selection buffer, but I want to find someone's
name. But sometimes we do want what is in our x selection buffer to show up as a option in find.
Hence, we have to know in advance on your proposal, which strikes me as bad.

(2) You can't easily just type something, then paste, then keep typing something (on your proposal).
In fact, you can't type something and then paste either, as the paste selection disappears after
you start typing. This again seems like a limitation.

These considerations suggest that perhaps a patch to dmenu should be re-evaluated for inclusion in
vanilla?

Yours,
Peter
Received on Wed Oct 21 2009 - 14:32:32 UTC