Bug 424416

Summary:	Type-ahead selection depends on typing speed
Product:	[Applications] dolphin	Reporter:	php4fan
Component:	view-engine: general	Assignee:	Dolphin Bug Assignee <dolphin-bugs-null>
Status:	CONFIRMED ---
Severity:	normal	CC:	kfm-devel, nate, openmindead
Priority:	NOR	Keywords:	usability
Version:	19.12.3
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Ubuntu
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description php4fan 2020-07-19 14:30:30 UTC

SUMMARY

When browsing a folder in a file manager, it's useful to be able to quickly find a select a file or folder by starting typin its name.

This functionality shouldn't be affected by how fast you type. You should be allowed to type a file name as slowly as you want and still be able to select it. Also, you should always be able to see what you have typed, and delete part or all of it

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. I Open a folder in Dolphin that contains lots of file. I want to locate and select a subfolder called vbp_user_highlights, but there's also a folder or file called vbp_user_banners, and several others named vbp_something
2. Start typing the name of the file so as to select it

OBSERVED RESULT

Depending on how fast I am to type, a few things can happen:

- I succeed (that's very rare); or
- After I've typed "vb", it takes me a fraction of a second to type the "p", and selection starts all over again, hence when I type the "p", it selects a file whose name starts with p; or
- After I've typed "vbp" succesfully, it definitely takes me a little longer to type the underscore, and by the time I type the "u", selection has started all over again and I'm selecting files whose name start with u; or
- Because I need to type at the speed of light in order to be able to select the file that I want, I type it wrong, and
- I also have no clue of what I'm typing, so if I realize I'm typing it wrong and selection isn't keeping up with what I'm supposed to be typing, I don't know when I started typing wrong; and
- if I do know that the last character I typed is wrong, I instinctively hit backspace, but that makes me jump straight up to the parent directory! Disaster!
- if I realize I've typed some character wrong and I am lucid enough to not hit backspace, I have to start over and re-type the entire file name from scratch.


EXPECTED RESULT

It should work almost exactly as Gnome's Nautilus used to work before they went berserk and replaced type-ahead with search.

An input box would appear somewhere (in the case of Gnome it was at the bottom-right) where you could see what you are typing, and even correct it by using backspace. This input box wouldn't just disappear on its own if you stopped typing, so you could take your time. You could make the box disappear and reset the contents (so as to restart typing or abort altogether) explicitly by hitting the Esc key, or moving focus away from the current window.

Cinnamon currently does basically the same. Their version is clumsy and somewhat buggy, but it's still way more usable than Dolphin's unusable, no-feedback, have-to-type-very-fast version.


SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Operating System: Kubuntu 20.04
KDE Plasma Version: 5.18.5
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.68.0
Qt Version: 5.12.8
Kernel Version: 5.4.0-40-generic
OS Type: 64-bit
Processors: 8 × Intel® Core™ i7-3632QM CPU @ 2.20GHz
Memory: 7,6 GiB of RAM

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Comment 1 Nate Graham 2020-07-19 22:55:58 UTC

Interesting observations. It hadn't occurred to me that type-ahead would be affected by typing speed, but it obviously does.

Comment 2 php4fan 2022-01-28 18:55:16 UTC

This is serious and really needs to be fixed. This renders type-ahead select COMPLETELY unusable (unless you are an INFALLIBLE *and* very fast typer who NEVER, ever, makes a mistake while typing - and note that even very good very fast typers usually do a fair amount of mistakes but they are very fast at correcting them on the go, and that's something you cannot do here).

It's not just the "I need to be fast" issue (which is bad enough in itself), the really bad part is - actually, are - the "I have no feedback when I do mistakes" part, and the "I need to start over whenever I make a mistake" part. Note that when you do have to start over, you cannot do that too fast. So whatever the time threshold is, it will always be bad. Because if it's too short, it's too demanding in you having to type very fast, but if it's longer, it will force you to wait longer before you can startover (and without knowing how much you need to wait because you have no feedback whatsoever).

Note that, if I start typing "abc" and it matches a file to that point, and then I type an additional "x", so I've now typed "abcx" and there is no match at this point, it can mean one of two things: (a) there is no file that starts with the four characters I've typed; or (b) I have mistyped the last character. And since I cannot see what I have typed, I have no way of being 100% sure which one happened. If it happens that there really is no match, and I have actually typed correctly, and I really expected a matching file to exist, then I'm guaranteed to try it again a couple times to be sure. 

I don't know how somebody could think it was a remotely acceptable UI design choice to allow the user to type without a box somewhere where you see what you are typing AND correct it (that is, delete characters with backspace and retype), and edit, select, and copy and paste, etc.