On Saturday 26 June 2004 10:41 pm, Maurizio Colucci wrote: > On Saturday 26 June 2004 04:41, Phil Thompson wrote:
> > In one situation... > > > > I need to type 4 characters of an 8 letter word in order to make that > > word current in the list. > > > > ...or in another... > > > > I can type 1 character, look at the list (the order of which may be > > different each time it is displayed depending on where I am in the file) > > and see that I only need to hit a cursor key twice to make the word > > current. > > > > Personally I'm always going to do the first. > > You mean, you prefer typing 4 characters than typing one and scanning the > list? Yes, of course: you developed this habit because, if you typed only > one character, you would have to scan a list that is too long. But IF the > list was sorted by distance, I bet you would have developed the opposite > habit: type one character and scan the list. Because the scan would NOT be > long in that case. No I wouldn't. For me, scanning the list is relatively time consuming. When I'm typing I'm thinking about what I want to type next, not about what I'm currently typing. To scan the list means that I have to stop thinking about that, start thinking about what I'm currently typing, read and navigate the list, then switch back to what I was originally thinking about. At my age these are non-trivial operations. If the contents of the list are predictable I can start taking it for granted by using without having to think about it too much - ie. without those expensive context switches. > > It's one extra keystroke, but > > it is relatively predictable. If I'm typing the same word many times I > > will quickly get into the habit of typing the 4 characters and selecting > > the current item without even bothering to look at the list. > > I believe typing one character is much more costly than pressing the down > arrow to search in the completion list. So I don't agree that you should > judge based on the number of keystrokes required. I'm saying that the point is to save time. > > Even though the second situation is one less keystroke (but maybe more > > depending on the context) it will be much slower because I have to read > > through the list - particulary if the list might need to be scrolled up > > or down to find what I'm looking for. > > The point is: you are not using the list in order to save typing letters. > You don't mind typing very much. > > My way of thinking, instead, is this: if I know I have typed a word very > recently, I type only the first two letters, then I scan the list until I > find it. Like I said, I'm too busy thinking about the next sentence. Obviously it's a very personal issue. If people generally think it's a good idea then I can add it. (It's a QScintilla thing, rather than an eric thing.) Phil _______________________________________________ PyKDE mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mats.imk.fraunhofer.de/mailman/listinfo/pykde