I'm bringing this report directly from a comment in the KDE git repository (https://invent.kde.org/utilities/kate/-/issues/20#note_224639). Since there are so many different subjects being discussed there, so I thought it best to bring him here to better follow the progress of that. Kate has some search and replace functions scattered across the interface, but the search plugin brings it all together in a more organized and more functional place. The only thing the plugin doesn't have yet is the option to perform actions within a specific text selection I think this function which is not included yet is very useful and should be placed in the search plugin. After that all other parts no longer needed could be removed. SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS KDE Plasma Version: 5.22.2 KDE Frameworks Version: 5.83.0 Qt Version: 5.15.2 Graphics Platform: X11
The document search comes with the Ktexteditor library. It is often useful for doing quick searches within the view while using the plugin for bigger searches or something else. I think the current design is intended. If one doesn't want the internal search, one only needs to not use it and remove the shortcut. As for the plugin being able to search within selections, that is a separate feature. But unlikely that it will ever get implemented because we already support it in the internal search.