Hello, @coises and All,
Presently, I think we can summarize how your plugin works, using the table, below, on its left part :
•=========================•=======================•============================================• •===============•==============================
| Actions | Scopes | Extents | | Actions | Default configuration
•=========================•=======================•============================================• •===============•==============================
| | | | | |
| Count | In Selection | N/A | | Find |
| ¯¯¯¯¯ | | | | |
| •-----------------------•--------------------------------------------• •---------------•------------------------------
| | | | | |
| Find All | | Before Caret | | Count |
| ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ | | | | |
| | In Marked Test | After Caret | •---------------•------------------------------
| | | | | |
| Mark | | Everywhere | | Find All |
| | | | | |
| | In Whole Document | In All Opened Documents | •---------------•------------------------------
| | | | | |
| Replace All | | In All Opened Documents of Current View | | Select |
| ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ | | | | |
•-------------------------•-----------------------•--------------------------------------------• •---------------•------------------------------
| | | | | |
| | In Selection | N/A | | Mark |
| | | | | |
| Select •-----------------------•--------------------------------------------• •---------------•------------------------------
| | | | | |
| | In Marked Text | Before Caret | | Show |
| | | | | |
| | | After Caret | •---------------•------------------------------
| Show | | | | |
| | In Whole Document | Everywhere | | Replace |
| | | | | |
•-------------------------•-----------------------•--------------------------------------------• •---------------•------------------------------
| | | | | |
| Find | In Selection | | | Replace All |
| ¯¯¯¯ | | Backward ( if Plain text ) | | |
| | In Marked Text | | •===============•==============================
| | | |
| Replace | In Whole Document | Forward |
| ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ | | |
•=========================•=======================•============================================•
The underlined actions are those which have a button, by default
Personally, your concept of a default scope bothers me a little, because it’s hard for me to know, in advance, which actions will be automatically selected by the plugin !
So, I was thinking about a radically different layout :
You entirely suppress the default scope functionality. However, I suppose this will affect the Selection section in the settings !
You does not show any symbol on all the buttons, nor use any drop-down list
You just show six one-letter buttons and two one-letter button for the replace actions, as below :
|F| |C| |A| |S| |M| |H| : Find Count find All Select Mark sHow
|R| |A| Replace replace All
All these simple-design buttons would open a common dialog box, in which the selected action — one of the eight possible options — would be already selected by default. This dialogue could be based on the table shown above !
Then, you’ll just have to check your present scope and extent choices for the chosen action
Optionally a message, summarizing everything that has just been selected, could be displayed
Then, this new dialog would end with three buttons :
A Define button to attribute a default configuration ( scope and extent ) for the chosen action, without any execution.
A Run button to start the chosen action, without any default configuration to apply to
And, of course, a Cancel button, or an hit on the ESC key, to dismiss the chosen action
IMPORTANT :
As we must distinguish a default configuration ( the set of the 3 elements : action, scope and extent ) from the execution of a simple action with ramdom scope and extent, the Define button, introduced above, must record that default configuration, within this dialog.
So, when clicking on the Define button, the default configuration, to write in this new dialog, would be :
For the Count, Find All, Mark and Replace All actions, one of these 11 messages
Count / Find All / Mark / Replace All in Selection
Count / Find All / Mark / Replace All in Marked text
Count / Find All / Mark / Replace All Before in Marked text
Count / Find All / Mark / Replace All After in Marked text
Count / Find All / Mark / Replace All in Marked Text in Open Documents
Count / Find All / Mark / Replace All in Marked Text in Documents in this View
Count / Find All / Mark / Replace All in Whole Document
Count / Find All / Mark / Replace All Before in Whole Document
Count / Find All / Mark / Replace All After in Whole Document
Count / Find All / Mark / Replace All in Open Documents
Count / Find All / Mark / Replace All in Documents in this View
For the Select and Show actions, one of these 7 messages :
Select / Show in Selection
Select / Show in Marked text
Select / Show Before in Marked text
Select / Show After in Marked text
Select / Show in Whole Document
Select / Show Before in Whole Document
Select / Show After in Whole Document
For the Find and Replace actions, one of these 6 messages :
Find / Replace Forward in Selection
Find / Replace Forward in Marked Text
Find / Replace Forward in Whole Document
Find / Replace Backward in Selection
Find / Replace Backward in Marked Text
Find / Replace Backward in Whole Document
Notes :
Of course, you could, in one go, click first on the Define button, then click on the Run button
A simple click on any of these eight buttons, would allow to quickly verify their default configurations, as long as you press the Cancel button, right after !
In other words, no more drop-down menus ! Instead, a new configuration dialog to confirm the default scope and extent values of the chosen action AND / OR the execution of the chosen action, with the present options checked in the scope and extent sections
There are surely some drawbacks to my proposal ! Anyway, what’s your feeling about this radical change ?
Best Regards,
guy038
