POLL: File grouping in Search-results -- what kind do YOU want?

[Alan Kilborn]

Further explanation:

“no real grouping…” is how Notepad++ 8.6.5 currently does it; here’s an example (see very bottom of this posting for the file/folder structure used for this search):

Notice the purely full-path sorting of filenames.

---

“files in the same folder grouped together”… cannot be illustrated with a screenshot, because Notepad++ currently cannot do it. But here’s a textual example of what it would look like, for the same fileset as before:

C:\JUNK\dir0\a.txt
C:\JUNK\dir0\n.txt
C:\JUNK\dir0\dir1\g.txt
C:\JUNK\dir0\dir1\t.txt
C:\JUNK\dir0\dir1\dir2\f.txt
C:\JUNK\dir0\dir1\dir2\s.txt
C:\JUNK\dir0\dir1\dir2\dir3\e.txt
C:\JUNK\dir0\dir1\dir2\dir3\r.txt
C:\JUNK\dir0\dir1\dir2\dir3\dir4\d.txt
C:\JUNK\dir0\dir1\dir2\dir3\dir4\q.txt
C:\JUNK\dir0\dir1\dir2\dir3\dir4\dir5\c.txt
C:\JUNK\dir0\dir1\dir2\dir3\dir4\dir5\p.txt
C:\JUNK\dir0\dir1\dir2\dir3\dir4\dir5\dir6\b.txt
C:\JUNK\dir0\dir1\dir2\dir3\dir4\dir5\dir6\o.txt

Notice how files in the same folder appear together. The best example is that a.txt and n.txt now appear adjacently and at the top of the output (contrast this with the earlier screenshot where a.txt appears at the very top of the output, n.txt at the very bottom).

---

---

---

Directory structure for the sample searches, above:

C:\JUNK\
    dir0\
        a.txt
        n.txt
        dir1\
            g.txt
            t.txt
            dir2\
                f.txt
                s.txt
                dir3\
                    e.txt
                    r.txt
                    dir4\
                        d.txt
                        q.txt
                        dir5\
                            c.txt
                            p.txt
                            dir6\
                                b.txt
                                o.txt

---

---

---

This poll has its roots with this official issue: https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/issues/14885

[Alan Kilborn]

Well, it has been almost 2 weeks since I opened this poll, and it has garnered a grand total of 10 votes.
Eighty-eight users have viewed this thread; it’s too bad that more didn’t take the time to vote on it.

The thinking was that if a poll could get a lot of user opinion expressed about something that the developer of Notepad++ has said “Let’s see if there’s more demand for this potential feature”, then the opinions could guide development.

So…even though 90% of the responses to this poll were for the direction of the new feature, I don’t think 9 votes is going to sway anyone.

I’ll declare polling on this forum pointless. :-)

[Lycan Thrope]

@Alan-Kilborn said in POLL: File grouping in Search-results -- what kind do YOU want?:

So…even though 90% of the responses to this poll were for the direction of the new feature, I don’t think 9 votes is going to sway anyone.

I’ll declare polling on this forum pointless. :-)

Well, actually @Alan-Kilborn , it’s not pointless. You’ve proven at least two points from this poll. The first two you already know, that the preference for those willing to poll, have a preference one way or the other, and secondly, that not enough people viewing this poll will vote, or, are unable to vote because they aren’t able to vote if they aren’t registered? (that’s kind of a question actually. :-) )

You’ve also pointed out that not enough people bother with polls, or are ambivalent about the direction, because they don’t really have a preference, at least until it bothers them which direction the developers go when they do implement a feature. You’ve also pointed out how few people actually visit these forums when they don’t have a problem, and if it doesn’t pertain to their problem, they aren’t interested in responding.

If you’re able to view the people that voted, I’ll wager it’s the same people that respond to most of the questions on the forums to help them, ie, the same people in the frequent poster categories. :-)

[PeterJones]

@Lycan-Thrope said in POLL: File grouping in Search-results -- what kind do YOU want?:

If you’re able to view the peole that voted

You should be able to. I just tried as anonymous reader, and couldn’t. But as far as I can tell, any logged-in user should be able to look at the results, then click on the N votes link on the right of each graph, and it will show the voters.

I’ll wager it’s the same people that respond to most of the questions

Indeed, as of now, I see 7 regulars, 1 infrequent poster, and 2 I hadn’t remembered/recognized.

[Lycan Thrope]

@PeterJones ,
I hate that my insight into human nature is accurate, even when I don’t know how to see the results of the poll tools you can use.

Thanks, i was able to see the votes after your hint about how to view them. :-)

[Alan Kilborn]

I’ll wager it’s the same people that respond to most of the questions

as of now, I see 7 regulars

And indeed, the author of Notepad++ typically denounces the opinions of “regulars” as not valuable (for some reason).

It’s a good point that only the “regulars” and those experiencing problems visit this site. And thus polling that small group doesn’t really have much value.

[Lycan Thrope]

@Alan-Kilborn said in POLL: File grouping in Search-results -- what kind do YOU want?:

And thus polling that small group doesn’t really have much value.

That value depends on if you value those who do respond, versus the opinion of fickle and fleeting forum users. I guess you really need to view the polling value, by how much you value the opinions of those that respond to your poll, to give you direction on the poll’s subject.

It’s a nice tool, so that people you may respect ( us happy few. :-) ) may be of use in giving direction, as any input is better than NO input. :-)

[Alan Kilborn]

@Lycan-Thrope

Well… I meant my perceived value of such a poll to the Notepad++ developer in order to drive development in a certain direction.
I thought this should be clear from my previous postings in this thread.

[Lycan Thrope]

@Alan-Kilborn ,
Well, it wasn’t as clear, to me, as it is now. :-) I just thought you’d like a little conversation about polls in general since you brought up it’s value or lackof , potential value. :-)

[TBugReporter]

@Lycan-Thrope said in POLL: File grouping in Search-results -- what kind do YOU want?:

people […] don’t really have a preference

I think this is the most important point about the polls: very few people have a strong opinion about the issues that have been polled. Perhaps response would be better if “I don’t really care” was an explicit selectable option.

(BTW, that would be my response to this one; if it were to change, I’d simply adapt to it - but I’m not one of the people trying to deal with hundreds or thousands of files at once.)

[Alan Kilborn]

@TBugReporter said in POLL: File grouping in Search-results -- what kind do YOU want?:

very few people have a strong opinion about the issues that have been polled

Good point. Although… I think if I were reading a short/easy poll on something that maybe doesn’t interest me much… might cause me to think about how the software should function, and then I could offer an opinion in that direction. (I know, a lot of “maybe” and “might” in there).

if “I don’t really care” was an explicit selectable option.

This is another good point, and I suggest to future poll creators to heed it (just to see what happens).
But… my guess is that it wouldn’t help all that much.
Perhaps we can count as “don’t care” the number of viewers of this topic minus the number that voted.

[PeterJones]

@Alan-Kilborn said in POLL: File grouping in Search-results -- what kind do YOU want?:

Perhaps we can count as “don’t care” the number of viewers of this topic minus the number that voted.

But that math doesn’t work right, because it’s not the number of “viewers”, but the number of “views” that you see. So if you’ve looked at this thread 6 times, that counts as 6 separate “views”, even though you’re only one “viewer”. (For example, I was both view 196 and view 198 by going somewhere else then coming back to this page.)

[Alan Kilborn]

@PeterJones said in POLL: File grouping in Search-results -- what kind do YOU want?:

So if you’ve looked at this thread 6 times, that counts as 6 separate “views”, even though you’re only one “viewer”. (For example, I was both view 196 and view 198 by going somewhere else then coming back to this page.)

Hmm, this doesn’t seem to be my experience. It is sitting on 198 and no matter what I do to try and increase it, it stays on 198.