Limit file search to directory under cursor if it has a trailing slash #75

kidonng · 2021-01-06T10:46:10Z

Co-authored-by: imr0 <[email protected]>

imr0 · 2021-01-06T11:38:02Z

Thanks for the feedback in #70! My preferences for why using completion this way have basically been summarized by @paddor in #70 (comment), but I will also reiterate them here:

A lot faster!
Works with queries containing parent–sibling relationships between directories (i.e. ../ or ./ in the queries).
More display space for files under the given directory, which looks much cleaner, especially if the preview window is open.
Can exploit muscle memory for TAB completion and then invoking fzf.
For—in my opinion—edge cases when the user is searching for a query elsewhere with the exact name of a directory that already exists in the current working directory, hitting Ctrl+f first and then typing in the query is still an option.

PatrickF1 · 2021-01-07T03:58:43Z

Sorry for the slow turnaround time, been a heck of a day at work...and will continue to be for a while so please be patient.

Anyway, for now, I'm not sold on this. Why? It's not that I don't like the idea. But there are serious downsides when considering the plugin holistically

The change adds a lot of complexity to the find files function, which I have to maintain. And I don't want to invest a ton in this feature anymore because I am realizing more and more this problem space of navigating directories is best solved by a CLI file manager (e.g. nnn, ranger, midnight commander, lf, Nerdtree, and many many more). It's a very saturated market. Navigating directories has bene solved a million times over, some solutions are pretty awesome (I love how nnn does it), and I really don't want to re-invent the wheel. I myself am going to move to nnn and probably stop using this feature myself probably. And I think other people should too. There's no way I can or want to build/maintain anything close to the feature set that nnn provides.
This is more like adding a quirk to the search files functionality. It's not easily discoverable unless someone looks at the code or follows the releases notes or scans through of the readme. And does anyone really do those things for such a small plugin? I doubt it. I don't want to surprise users with the many quirks of search files, because now there are really 3 modes: search for files with no current token, search for files that replaces the current token, search for files using the current token as a directory.
Users will probably a hard time remembering and mastering all the quirks of this function. And my goal has always been to KISS so that using the plugin is a no-brainer.
This needs to be documented and clearly and quickly taught to all users.

Sorry for i'm being harsh. I hate that you already put in the work. But I won't merge it as is. However, I am open to a compromise. Maybe if we use a key bind to reload fzf's input list with the contents of the directory in the query? e.g. fzf --bind ctrl-f:reload(fd $current_token)?

CC: @paddor, @imr0

kidonng · 2021-01-07T11:05:13Z

For—in my opinion—edge cases when the user is searching for a query elsewhere with the exact name of a directory that already exists in the current working directory, hitting Ctrl+f first and then typing in the query is still an option.

We can add a little check here. If there is no other match in the currect directory, we will use the entered directory as a base.

kidonng · 2021-01-07T11:34:31Z

The change adds a lot of complexity to the find files function, which I have to maintain.

I don't think this is that complex, but yeah, I'm not the one to say it.

navigating directories is best solved by a CLI file manager

We are not building a file manager. This is a file picker after all, any only recently it got addition so it can be used for quickly navigating to folders.

Third-party program can't intergrate with Fish at this level (unless you would like to keep the program open), which means this function will never become useless.

3 modes: search for files with no current token,

That is not a mode, we only save the user from typing ./ themselves. And this PR is not adding a new mode either, see explanation below.

I agree with the rest of narration. This PR is not meant to be accepted as-is, I'm just throwing in my thoughts.

kidonng · 2021-01-07T11:48:16Z

I just made a change which gives a compelling reason why this will be a nice addition with no cost.

The base directory will only be changed to the token under cursor if:

The token under cursor is a directory
The token ends with slash (/)

Why I call this a compelling reason? Because when you open the search with src/, you are definitely searching inside src, not the currect directory, which makes changing the base directory a natural choice.

And I want to provide a real life usage for @imr0's forth point:

Can exploit muscle memory for TAB completion and then invoking fzf.

As you may know macOS has a large ~/Library which pretty much stores everything generated by programs. This makes searching in currect directory very inconvinient if you are at home (~). With this PR I can type, for example, .con, and hit Tab to let Fish turn it into .config/, then I can search in .config only, which is much faster.

functions/__fzf_search_current_dir.fish

PatrickF1 · 2021-01-07T18:20:43Z

Just tested. The file previews broke :(
Otherwise I like the idea and will definitely merge once it's passed testing.

kidonng · 2021-01-08T06:18:31Z

@PatrickF1 I have fixed the preview (which is easier than I expect).

kidonng · 2021-01-08T09:03:03Z

~~Yeah I kinda messed up my local Git history when I merged master and did my first force push.~~ Never mind, I fixed it.

PatrickF1

Nice work!

PatrickF1

Sorry it still doesn't work. I would have thought the fix would work but now I don't know what's wrong.

kidonng · 2021-01-09T03:59:05Z

Works on my machine™️

...and in CodeSpaces (which is standard Fish 3.1.2):

PatrickF1

Ah you're right--it works again now--not sure what I did wrong.

kidonng · 2021-03-14T01:52:37Z

Just noticed fzf does this in their own Fish plugin: https://github.com/junegunn/fzf#fish-shell

PatrickF1 · 2021-03-14T06:24:20Z

Nice, I'm glad we added it though it's causing quite a bit of maintenance and documentation pain.

…atrickF1#75) This new behavior allows the user to control the directory in which the search file feature initiates its search. If the current token is a directory and it has a trailing slash (e.g. functions/<CURSOR>), then we assume the user wants to search for files in that directory. This can be useful when in a directory containing large subdirectories (e.g. on macOS, the home directory contains ~/Library which is very large). Moreover, it also allows searching a parent or sibling directory by using ../ (e.g. ../Downloads/<CURSOR>. What's great is that this new behavior is that it complements tab completion. When a user wants to access a file in a subdirectory, they may start typing the name of the directory and hit TAB. When tab completion writes out the directory's path, it will already append a trailing slash for the user, allowing the user to quickly execute the search files feature and search within that directory.

kidonng and others added 2 commits January 6, 2021 18:42

Use the directory under cursor as base directory

2e77f6d

Co-authored-by: imr0 <[email protected]>

Revise comment

ce480ea

Only change base if there is no other matches

e3fe063

Don't add trailing slash, but turn it into a criteria instead

28b0044

PatrickF1 reviewed Jan 7, 2021

View reviewed changes

functions/__fzf_search_current_dir.fish Show resolved Hide resolved

PatrickF1 added 3 commits January 7, 2021 10:37

improve comments

42b44cc

grammar

4653453

update readme

5812ce8

kidonng marked this pull request as draft January 8, 2021 09:03

kidonng added 3 commits January 8, 2021 17:13

Fix preview

5df4052

Merge branch 'main' into base

c0a655b

Revise comments

37d629c

kidonng marked this pull request as ready for review January 8, 2021 09:19

PatrickF1 approved these changes Jan 8, 2021

View reviewed changes

<CURSOR>

f2f1b73

PatrickF1 requested changes Jan 8, 2021

View reviewed changes

PatrickF1 mentioned this pull request Jan 9, 2021

v5 ideas #70

Closed

Merge branch 'main' into base

a928fef

PatrickF1 approved these changes Jan 9, 2021

View reviewed changes

PatrickF1 changed the title ~~Use the directory under cursor as base directory~~ Limit file search to directory under cursor if it ends in a slash Jan 9, 2021

PatrickF1 changed the title ~~Limit file search to directory under cursor if it ends in a slash~~ Limit file search to directory under cursor if has a trailing slash Jan 9, 2021

PatrickF1 changed the title ~~Limit file search to directory under cursor if has a trailing slash~~ Limit file search to directory under cursor if it has a trailing slash Jan 9, 2021

PatrickF1 added 2 commits January 8, 2021 22:55

grammar

604d549

Update __fzf_search_current_dir.fish

19451ae

PatrickF1 merged commit af7b913 into PatrickF1:main Jan 9, 2021

PatrickF1 deleted the base branch January 9, 2021 07:21

kidonng mentioned this pull request Feb 8, 2021

Fix search file feature unnecessarily prepending ./ #119

Merged

kidonng mentioned this pull request May 12, 2021

[Search files] fix preview for paths containing spaces #137

Merged

kidonng mentioned this pull request May 20, 2021

[Search directory] fix specifying base directories using quotes #163

Merged

Provide feedback

Saved searches

Use saved searches to filter your results more quickly

Limit file search to directory under cursor if it has a trailing slash #75

Limit file search to directory under cursor if it has a trailing slash #75

kidonng commented Jan 6, 2021 •

edited

Loading

imr0 commented Jan 6, 2021

PatrickF1 commented Jan 7, 2021 •

edited

Loading

kidonng commented Jan 7, 2021

kidonng commented Jan 7, 2021 •

edited

Loading

kidonng commented Jan 7, 2021 •

edited

Loading

PatrickF1 commented Jan 7, 2021

kidonng commented Jan 8, 2021 •

edited

Loading

kidonng commented Jan 8, 2021 •

edited

Loading

PatrickF1 left a comment

PatrickF1 left a comment

kidonng commented Jan 9, 2021 •

edited

Loading

PatrickF1 left a comment

kidonng commented Mar 14, 2021

PatrickF1 commented Mar 14, 2021

Limit file search to directory under cursor if it has a trailing slash #75

Limit file search to directory under cursor if it has a trailing slash #75

Conversation

kidonng commented Jan 6, 2021 • edited Loading

imr0 commented Jan 6, 2021

PatrickF1 commented Jan 7, 2021 • edited Loading

kidonng commented Jan 7, 2021

kidonng commented Jan 7, 2021 • edited Loading

kidonng commented Jan 7, 2021 • edited Loading

PatrickF1 commented Jan 7, 2021

kidonng commented Jan 8, 2021 • edited Loading

kidonng commented Jan 8, 2021 • edited Loading

PatrickF1 left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

PatrickF1 left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

kidonng commented Jan 9, 2021 • edited Loading

PatrickF1 left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

kidonng commented Mar 14, 2021

PatrickF1 commented Mar 14, 2021

kidonng commented Jan 6, 2021 •

edited

Loading

PatrickF1 commented Jan 7, 2021 •

edited

Loading

kidonng commented Jan 7, 2021 •

edited

Loading

kidonng commented Jan 7, 2021 •

edited

Loading

kidonng commented Jan 8, 2021 •

edited

Loading

kidonng commented Jan 8, 2021 •

edited

Loading

kidonng commented Jan 9, 2021 •

edited

Loading