Incremental Search Terminated By Spacebar

[DL]

It looks like the incremental search stops whenever the spacebar is pressed.  I verified that Windows Explorer - as well as 2xExplorer - include keystrokes after the spacebar during an incremental search.

For example, if I have the following directories in the main window

Ian Hunter - Whatever
Ian McCullough - Not Now

and it is impossible to get xplorer2 to focus on the "Ian McCullough" directory using incremental search.

Am I missing something - like a registry setting - that would make the incremental search work as expected?

Using xplorer2 at 1.7.0.5 [Unicode].

[fgagnon]

Good catch
I had never noticed that before... probably because I'm a slow hunt-and-peck typer.   I seldom get past the second character before I pause too long and have to start over.  

There is no 'solution' that I am aware of.  

FWIW, my workaround is to type just the first character(s) again (& again), which takes me to the next match, incrementally.  

[DL]

Thanks for the fast reply!

Would it be possible to consider this a request for the incremental search behavior to be consistent with Windows Explorer and other file managers (even 2xExplorer)?  

The current behavior could even be considered a bug in that a space is not handled the same way as other characters.  It is counter-intuitive and potentially misleading - xplorer2 focuses on the "last" item that matches the input up to and including the space even though items further down the list actually match the actual keyboard input.

My example was simple to demonstrate the behavior.  In my real world situation, there may be hundreds of directories (and/or files) that match on "the " with the next character matching 3 or 4 files many screen scrolls down the list.  xplorer2's behavior makes it look like nothing down the list matches even though something does.  It is time consuming to have to scroll down the list just to access the matching directory or to be certain that nothing does match.

Thanks!

[fgagnon]

I agree that it's bug.  

How soon nikos addresses it is a matter of his priorities.

[nikos]

this is a result of space being used as a shortcut to select the current file. I'll think of a workaround

[DL]

nikos, thanks for considering a workaround.

xplorer2 is great - I wish I had discovered it years ago!

[narayan]

The best way is to have a quick search bar like Firefox/Thunderbird.
* It pops up (automatically) only when the user enters a string.
* It allows entry of space
* The search string is persistent (it can be reused for the next search). This means you do not have to enter the same string again and again. (Repeat search is by pressing F3, which is standard in x2).
* It is ESCapable.

[nikos]

for this kind of thing you can use xplorer2 quicksearch with ":" in the addressbar

[narayan]

No that's a different flavor of selection, where all matches are selected at once. Here, the main idea is to focus on one match at a time and be able to jump to the next one if the current item does not quite satisfy the user (for example, the user can press Enter to launch the currently focused item.)

[wasker]

this is a result of space being used as a shortcut to select the current file. I'll think of a workaround

Ctrl-Space is the shortcut for file select in Explorer.

[igi]

If you hold down the shift key while pressing space, the incremental search treats the key-press as a character, rather than a selection command. In other words, instead of pressing space, press shift+space.

It works, but it's ungainly, so a more elegan solution would be nice

[fgagnon]

Good detective work for a legitimate workaround, igi.

Thanks.

[Flux]

A similar problem appears when you have multiple equal letters.
For example try to access "Aaron" on a list like this:

A ha
A Static Lullaby
Aaron Neville
Ace of base

This (silly) behaviour is the same as Explod... ehm , Explorer.