Quick Drop suggestions patchy

[EdHarris]

I  found that Quick Drop suggestions can be a bit patchy. For example if you wanted to find a converter for booleans you might type "convert" at which point you get lots of suggestions. As soon as you type "b" to add boolean you get nothing - which suggests there is no point in going on, which is what I did. This caused a lot of wasted time and delay. Once I found there was a class of vi that convert boolean I tried Quick drop and found that you don't get a result until you complete the whole of "boolean" !        Labview 2014

[wiebe@CARYA]

I think the problem in your example is there is no "convert boolean" at all. So QD 'sees' convert, and adds "b" to the search criteria on the convert results. b is also added to match any full words, but there aren't any. Not until you fully typed "Boolean", you get a match on both full words.

But I have to agree, QD is not without flaws. The word matching is probably done by an external API (Lucene IIRC), so I'm not sure NI will be able to (practically) change it.

A weird thing that bothers me constantly is this. I type some characters ("get str"), and get exactly 1 hit ("Get String.vi"). OCD-wise I continue typing the full text ("get string"), and hit enter. Only to find out QD added a random function ("call chain" not matching any of my words) on top of my search results. Really weird and annoying...

I guess you just have to "grow into it" a bit... It's pretty neat once you get used to it. I know it saves me at least .5 hour on a 8 hour day...

[EdHarris]

Yes, looks like QD prefers simple phrases such as "Boolean array to number" or "boolean to (0,1)" over "convert boolean".

[crossrulz]

I do know the search uses that same one that is used for the palettes.  So it is using the same search database/algorithm.  It does use tags, so you do not need an exact function name match.  But here's the weird one for me:

1. Type "Obtai".  The first item on the list is exactly what I was looking for: Obtain Queue.

2. Type the 'n' (now "Obtain") and Obtain Queue is no longer in the list.  Get Folder is the first option.

There is an option to turn off using the tags (open QD, click "Configure", go to the Options tab).  If you turn off the relevancy search, then the search algorithm will just do a literal name search.  This does increase the responsiveness as well.  But it could be harder to find what you want.

[wiebe@CARYA]

Here mine (sorry, transparency is on):

I can reproduce the "Obtain" situation (with relevancy search off: too much hits for me).

I guess it's the next step in the machines taking over...

[Hooovahh]

Yup this is apparently a known issue that NI doesn't have much control over due to the implementation of the feature.

https://forums.ni.com/t5/Quick-Drop-Enthusiasts/QD-Oddness-in-Search-Obtain-Queue/gpm-p/3665060

Had this relevancy lookup been done in G NI could tweak it as they see fit, but because they did it the way they did, changing it isn't as easy.  Obtain queue gets me all the time.