RFE - "search as you type" + Enter, sometimes does not wait for search to complete?
Description of problem
I have been using Gnome shell for a long time. I like to use the keyboard.
I was very impressed when I started using Gnome shell. It let me e.g. type "term" + Enter, and I could know it would reliably start gnome-terminal, without me having to watch exactly what the screen was doing. (Which is just as well IMO, because unlike other GUI's, the layout & highlight does not emphasize the first search result very well :-).
I noticed this failed for me several times recently. I type "term" + Enter, and it opens Thunderbird - because it has processed the "t" but not the rest of the search :-(. It is an unpleasant surprise, because most of the time Gnome shell is surprisingly good at this.
As a second example, I have typed "soft" + Enter, and seen it launch Sound Recorder.
Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable)
gnome-shell-3.28.3-1.fc28.x86_64, i.e. 3.28.3 from Fedora 28
How reproducible
This does not always happen, even when I am typing fast. I don't have proof that it's a regression in gnome-shell. It is probably a subtle change in my usage or expectations. It would be great if it could be made more reliable somehow though! I don't think "term" + Enter should ever launch Thunderbird...
I have a spinning hard drive (slow). I don't know if it will happen as often on an SSD (which is faster).
Maybe it happens only when I first log in, or when I have cleared caches, etc? I tried clearing caches and I was able to reproduce it once, but those steps did not reproduce a second time.
Or maybe it happens because PackageKit (used in the search) seems particularly weird lately (see below).
Steps to Reproduce
- On the keyboard, press windows key ("super"), quickly type "term", and Enter.
Actual results
Sometimes, Thunderbird or Telegram or something launches.
Expected results
I want it to always launch a terminal program (or at least, something who's name contains "term" :).
Additional information
Conceptually, this seems simple to implement. Don't process the "enter", until you have finished the search process.
I note that for app search, we don't need to display these search results incrementally as we find them. It is necessary to do that for an uncached search of a filesystem, because it can take so long. But for app search, we are only searching through a small number of apps, maybe a hundred. If we display search results incrementally, it is harder to provide nice behaviour - if you press "t" + Enter, do you get Thunderbird or Telegram, depending on how far the search had progressed? Since app search doesn't need to do that, I think it is conceptually possible to ensure the nice behaviour for keyboard users.
In practice, I appreciate this might require a bit of hacking, since the search includes sections for more slower searches underneath the app search :-).