[PD] restrict "find externals" to exact matches

[IOhannes m zmoelnig]

hi all,

i would like to change the way the "find externals" search currently works.

right now, whenever you enter a simple search term (e.g. "foo"), the 
search will return all libraries and objects that have the string "foo" 
somewhere in their name.
i think this is wrong, as it makes it extra hard to search for an exact 
name that happens to also be used as a part of library/object names.

the problem is somewhat enlarged, as by default both libraries and 
objects are searched, and the object-results are kind of opaque (e.g. 
looking for "lim" will return 10 hits.
among them is "bandLIMited", zexy and iemlib.

to the user it's a bit mysterious why they get these results (they 
probably don't know that there's a [limiter~] in zexy, or a [speedlim] 
in iemlib).

i think it would help a lot if a search term like "lim" would only 
return exact matches.

it's probably little known, but you can already use wildcards in your 
search term.
so if you do want to search for any string containg 'lim', you can 
(already) use "*lim*".
you can also use "lim*" (to match any strings that start with 'lim') 
resp "*lim" (for strings that end with 'lim').

right now, the logic is: if there is no wildcard in the searchstring, 
the server will automatically add '*' around the term (so 'lim' really 
becomes '*lim*')

i'd like to require the user to add wildcards explicitely.


the thing is: the implicit wildcards are added on the server-side.
if i change it there, suddenly all searches are going to behave 
different than how they do now.
regardless of the Pd-veresion (or deken-plugin version) you are using.


how would you see such a change?
would the disruption be acceptable?
or not? (in which case i need to find some other solution; however, if 
the current behaviour is annoying to most people anyhow, i'd rather 
change it for good)

gfmadrs
IOhannes