[X-Unix] Re: X-Unix Digest, Vol 9, Issue 14

[John Baltutis]

On 05/18/05, you wrote:
> ~flipper <lord.flipper at gmail.com> wrote
>>even the Spotlight can't 'find' your /usr/bin directory.
>
> You can easily tell Spotlight to include /usr/bin in searches if you prefer
> such a configuration. But more importantly, why would the average user (not
> a power user, but an average user) *want* the contents of /user/bin -- or
> any other folder containing Unix executables or OS files -- to be included
> in Spotlight searches? There are over 700 files in /usr/bin alone, few of
> which most Mac users will ever care about and most of which contain a good
> number of basic words that would likely get picked up by Spotlight searches.
> For example, if Spotlight were to include /usr/bin by default, a user who
> searches for "copyright" would end up with literally hundreds of unwanted
> matches, making the results list pretty unmanageable.

"You can easily tell Spotlight to includeŠ." Oh, yeah? Show me the Apple
provided instructions to easily do that. You can't do it in the Spotlight
PrefPane->Search Results, rather than criteria, (aren't those categories
laughable-especially since you can't add any) or Finder's Find. The only
thing available in Help under Spotlight is this bold-faced untruth:
"Spotlight lets you search your entire computer quickly" Bull! If it were
true, then no one would be complaining and ALL the ciomputer's directories
would be indexed.

Oh, sure. Power users can use the mdimport and mdfind CLI commands, but
even those don't allow you to restrict the search to file names or really
tailor it. For that, they use locate and find.

Here's my take on Spotlight, after spending seven months working with it
and echoes many beta-tester's comments:

Most people seldom search for content-that's why most never indexed their
drives or used Sherlock extensively in the earlier OS versions. They search
by or for the subject, which is usually contained in the name-just like
they do when seeking something in a library. Spotlight's default should be
"name" with the other options selectable by the user-the user, not Apple's
engineering gurus who see the world through different colored glasses.
Getting thousands of items containing the search criteria is useless
overhead.

I think there should be two databases. One which includes content and one
that excludes content, with the latter one being the default and the former
being an option for any individual search, but never a permanent choice.
When the user decides to do a content search, then, and only then, should
Spotlight update that index-otherwise Spotlight can continue to update
everything, except content, as it currently does. If this setup was
implemented, search performance and indexing slowdowns would vanish.

The Spotlight PrefPane should allow the user to drag a folder into its
Search Results window, just like Finder's Find did in earlier versions.
That capability allows the user-just can't keep 'em away-to determine
search categories. Personally, I have over half the available ones turned
off. I have no use for things like contacts, events, music, fonts, or
mail-although I realize others do. But I do need the ability to find config
files, system level plists, CLI commands, man pages, etc. So color me a
power user, but give me the tools to do my job.

Finally, searches shouldn't begin until you've selected it (clicking on the
go button or the return/enter key ) and there should be an option to turn
"searching on letters as one types" off. This business of starting when you
start typing is, IMHO, maddening and a performance zapper.

Just my 2¢.