philc / philc/vimium

[Request] add option to disable search fallback in open URL/history/bookmark tool

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#3,010 4 comments 2 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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Dominant language
JavaScript
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Forks
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Description

I have never been a fan of the notion of combining Web searching with a tool that is used to invoke bookmark/history or manual URL entry. It means every typo gets sent live, and clutters up the history. I can easily enough disable the search engine fallback by setting the search engine to "about:blank" in advanced settings---so for that part of the matter I'm satisfied.

What would be nice however, as an alternative, is to have that field on a checkbox that when disabled also modifies the behaviour to select and invoke the first match in the result list with return. Since return all by itself would no longer serve any purpose, being able to dodge that somewhat annoying DownArrow + Return twitch that brings your hand off the home row would be very nice. The whole thing about Vim is that you can largely ignore those awkwardly placed arrow keys, and having to rely upon them (or the mouse) for selecting search results feels to me the weakest implementation in Vimium's otherwise well executed philosophy.

P.S. If at all possible it would be nice to pull from the browser's preferences with regards to default search engine.

Contributor guide

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First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with the open URL/history/bookmark tool and its advanced-settings search engine option. Check how disabling search fallback should affect result selection and Return behavior, and whether browser search preferences are in scope. Done means the requested option works consistently and its behavior is covered by the project’s existing checks.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
javascript
Domain
tooling
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
30/100

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