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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: kfind issues
From:       Dik Takken <D.H.J.Takken () phys ! uu ! nl>
Date:       2004-02-27 19:49:07
Message-ID: Pine.OSF.4.58.0402272006380.89898 () ruunat ! phys ! uu ! nl
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On Fri, 27 Feb 2004, Jamethiel Knorth wrote:

> > > * Find all PDF files with more than 10 pages in it
> > > * Find a picture called image.jpg of dimensions 1024x768
> > > * Find all avi video's that use the XVid codec
> > > * Find a KWord document containing the phrase "KDE is Cool"
> > > * Find all pictures that look similar to a picture provided by the user.
> >All good ideas :-)
> >
> >So let's start brainstorming...
> >
> >Alex
>
> I love all these ideas, but would suggest that, if any more options are
> being added, the tool needs to be split into 'basic search' and 'advanced
> search'. Normally, I hate advanced sections, but users are fairly well
> adjusted to the idea in searches.

Yes, I think that's a requirement.

> If they hit advanced search, it switches to
> the more powerful search interface with lots of options

I don't think the new KFind possibilities should be put in a advanced
section. It's a bit more complicated than you might think. You see, you
can build a new and much more intuitive way of searching with the
possibiliies that you call 'Advanced'.

There is a BIG difference between what *we* would call 'Advanced search'
and what the average computer user would call 'Advanced Search'. For
example, the average computer user would love to search a picture by
describing what it looked like. That would be the most natural
way to search, it's in no way 'Advanced'. A developer would call it
'Advanced', because it's technically advanced. For the developer,
searching by filename and size with lots of wildcards is the
natural way to go. The average computer user may have no idea about the
filesize of the picture he is looking for and don't know anything about
wildcards and regular expressions. He would call the developer's
method 'Advanced'.

I think you could say that, for the majority of computer users, a natural
search application allows the user to search for file properties that he
is likely to remember, like the color of a picture, the fact that it
looked like a line-drawing, the author of the document, or a phrase of
text. I would like to call such properties 'natural properties'. Of
course, the file name is also a quite natural property, but it's only one
of many.

So, you could also plead for a search interface that focusses primarily on
natural properties in stead. The developer type of user will choose
'Advanced' and type a smart search string with regular expressions and
stuff. Probably he might even never use KFind, and use
the UNIX commandline in stead. True, KFind can do nothing more
than the 'find' command anyway.

Just some stuff to think about.

Cheers,

Dik

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