Why no search and replace?

[charleski]

I installed Sigil hoping it would provide a useful solution to issues in which I need to change tag codes, but was bitterly disappointed to find that there's no function to search and replace in the xml.

It's a great pity, as this is the most important (and useful) feature of any editor. It's free, so I can't really moan, but I am surprised at this lack.

[zelda_pinwheel]

search and replace is coming, it's very high on Valloric's priority list. sigil is currently in alpha release only ! please be a little patient. also you might want to take a look at some of the threads in this forum to learn more about sigil.

[Valloric]

Originally Posted by charleski

It's a great pity, as this is the most important (and useful) feature of any editor. It's free, so I can't really moan, but I am surprised at this lack.

I am literally working on this as we speak. By "literally" I mean Visual Studio is opened next to Firefox and I've just taken a small break to check the forum.

I've been horribly busy as of late so work on Sigil is progressing slower than expected, but it is progressing.

[charleski]

Excellent! Thanks for the reply. I was tempted to download the code and add it myself, but have enough on the go already.

[Valloric]

Originally Posted by charleski

Excellent! Thanks for the reply. I was tempted to download the code and add it myself, but have enough on the go already.

Believe me, it's not as easy as it looks. From wrestling with webkit to refresh only the updated portions instead of the whole flow, to traversing the HTML element stack to get the location of the change, to making sure you're only searching from the cursor location (and in Book View you need javascript just to get the cursor element), to regular expressing support... etc. These are just the Book View difficulties. You of course need to write it twice since searching in Code View is completely different.

You naturally need to design an effective and user friendly S&R dialog that will be of use to the average and to the power user. If you're really trying to make it good, you'd create a few (turns out it's more than a few) different designs, and then test them out on a few different people. Those people would then complain about each design, and then you'd have to make new ones and test those too until you worked out all the kinks.

Done right, it's not a quick process. Especially when you're an overstressed, overworked, full time graduate student working on this in what little spare time you can find.

[zelda_pinwheel]

if it helps, you've got my undying gratitude and heartfelt appreciation for taking on this project...