Search functionality without HOC

[schanzer]

We currently wrap our BlockEditor in a higher order component that provides additional functionality. This is unnecessary.

[pcardune]

I figured out the right keystrokes to open the search window and it looks kind of janky to me. Is this functionality needed at all? If so I'm tempted to just rewrite it.

[schanzer]

No objection! Just bear in mind that there's some accessibility stuff embedded into react-tabs and react-modal that we don't want to lose.

[pcardune]

Before I embark on the effort, is there a doc or something that explains the goals of the search functionality? For example, I see that it supports regex search. If the primary use case for the editor is to help beginners learn about programming, regex search seems like a pretty advanced feature that makes the interface more complicated.

Is there any reason the search functionality needs to look or behave any differently than codemirror's search functionality, aside from highlighting blocks in addition to text?

[schanzer]

@sorawee added regexp functionality because he could, and I certainly wasn't going to argue with free functionality! :)

You're right, though - this is more than we need. There isn't any formal requirements doc, but here's the checklist in descending order of priority:

• UI should work well with screenreaders (happy to go into more detail if you like, but the current audio UI largely passes muster and could be copied)
• Case-insensitive search-by-string
• Search-by-block
• Distinct sounds for "no match found" and "wrapping to next match" (these are already implemented)
• Case-sensitive search-by-string (likely a checkbox in the same UI for case-insensitive)
• Use PageUp/PageDown keys for "find next" and "find previous" (this is from long discussions with the a11y consultant, and the fact that so many kids use chromebooks)

[pcardune]

Thanks for the checklist, this is helpful.

@sorawee added regexp functionality because he could, and I certainly wasn't going to argue with free functionality! :)

Nothing is free. All features have a maintenance cost for developers and a learning/onboarding cost for users. Like everything else, these costs have to be balanced against the benefits. As they say, "less is more", except of course when more is more. As much as I am wowed by the lambda calculus, it sure is nice to have things that aren't functions.

[schanzer]

[pcardune]

I'm going to close this in favor of #485