Post B6yQq0znG0PkbXGOFE by jsbarretto@social.coop
 (DIR) More posts by jsbarretto@social.coop
 (DIR) Post #B6yQq0znG0PkbXGOFE by jsbarretto@social.coop
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       Since I made project-wide search fast in my text editor I've realised I've mostly stopped using the regular find/open dialogues.The project-wide search nudges files that are close to the current file to the top of the results anyway, so I'm seeing the same files regardless: but I also get to see everything in nearby directories too, just in case I forget where the file I'm looking for is.Originally I built project-search as a heavy-weight tool with the expectation that I'd use it only a few times per programming session but now that it can sift through millions of lines faster than I can blink I've ended up using it to query pretty much anything about the code I'm working on.
       
 (DIR) Post #B6yQq1OxkQXzrb2UTY by jsbarretto@social.coop
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       Another thing I added recently is post-search filtering. Once I search for a term, I can then keep typing additional space-separated filters to refine the search.This has had a surprising effect on the way I write code. I now mostly don't think about directories when I'm moving around the codebase. Instead, it's much more like I have a tagged filesystem: I can specify little fragments of the path in whatever order I like based on whatever pops into my head first and it zeroes in on the result almost immediately.
       
 (DIR) Post #B6yQq1fGlnaigAfVtQ by jsbarretto@social.coop
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       It's really difficult to put hard numbers on it but I think this has made me substantially more productive as a developer, especially when working with unfamiliar code. I no longer have to pull the whole codebase into my mental cache to start working with it: I can ask questions of the code with the project search at the speed of thought. It feels *amazing*.I don't care how fancy you think your AI-powered workflow is, there's nothing like wondering "which components consume this type?" and getting the answer back before you've even finished formulating the question.
       
 (DIR) Post #B6yQq2A6v8GGDp68xs by natty@astolfo.social
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @jsbarretto@social.coop I don't think the two are the same use case? Ctrl+H in IDEA is amazing with the prebuilt indexes, but a language model I see most people use as a replacement for Googling and clicking the first stackoverflow result
       
 (DIR) Post #B6yS4SrsWcVZ3c0zz6 by jsbarretto@social.coop
       1 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @natty Not trying to claim they're the same thing. What I am saying is that instant feedback before an idea passes out of my mind is very useful and I personally care about stuff like that more than I do the ability to throw questions at an LLM.