[Tickets #7196] Re: Hitting escape in the search field doesn't clear it

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Ticket URL: http://bugs.horde.org/ticket/7196
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  Ticket             | 7196
  Updated By         | Michael Slusarz <slusarz at horde.org>
  Summary            | Hitting escape in the search field doesn't clear it
  Queue              | IMP
  Version            | HEAD
  Type               | Bug
  State              | Assigned
  Priority           | 1. Low
  Milestone          |
  Patch              |
  Owners             | Chuck Hagenbuch, Michael Slusarz
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Michael Slusarz <slusarz at horde.org> (2009-01-15 14:14) wrote:

> I'm not entirely convinced of that I guess In Apple Mail, for example:

Considering I'm not a great fan of Apple Mail... take these comments  
with that grain of salt.

> - the search bar doesn't appear until you've typed something in as a
> search string, so you can tab in and out of the search box without
> mucking with your mailbox listing or doing an empty search.

Is Apple Mail doing search as you type?  If so, and it is hitting the  
IMAP server for every search (as opposed to its local cache) that is  
totally inefficient.  The whole point of allowing a user to set search  
parameters before typing in DIMP is to eliminate this inefficiency.   
There is absolutely no reason to send an IMAP search request for 'c',  
'ch', 'chu', 'chuc', and/or 'chuck' in the From header if you are  
searching for that information in the Subject header.

> - hitting escape while in the search field clears the search and
> hides the search bar

That is non-intuitive for me.  I never use ESC in this manner.   
Although this is less intrusive than any of the other suggestions in  
this ticket, and wouldn't break anything that is already implemented  
so this is a reasonable request.

> - since it's impossible to do an empty search, empty searches don't
> result in empty mailboxes. I think if we end up with nothing in the
> search filter box, we should either not run a search, or we should
> match everything - matching nothing, especially when what I've done
> is tab in and out of the search box, is really disruptive.
>
> Clicking the search box and then outside of it does leave the search
> bar open, but it doesn't seem to run an empty search - not sure why
> the difference from tabbing in and out.

This is a feature: after all, why run an empty search?  When I click  
on the search box, I don't want the mailbox listing to go blank.  I  
haven't searched for anything yet.  An empty search string is NO  
search, not an empty search.