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Preview Of New Beagle Search UI

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the i-still-run-a-desktop-search-in-my-head dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The new Beagle Search UI was merged into Beagle CVS last week, after being developed as a separate module known as 'Holmes'. A preview is now online with plenty of screenshots. It currently doesn't look as smooth or well integrated as Spotlight, but it does look promising and it is still in a very early stage."

2 of 36 comments (clear)

  1. Interesting... by mellon · · Score: 4, Informative

    I'm working on a somewhat more flexible search tool for Qt/KDE right now. I'll put up some screenshots in a few minutes - I'd be interested in some insightful comments about it.

  2. Not As Well Integrated!? by nathanh · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Is the submitter on crack? Beagle is equally or perhaps more integrated than Spotlight.

    To launch the Beagle search UI is a single keypress: F12. On Spotlight it's a double keystroke: command spacebar. Advantage: Beagle.

    Both Beagle and Spotlight have a single icon in the main panel that you can click for a search UI or to set preferences. Advantage: equal

    Both Beagle and Spotlight have a single search field that you can type into, hit enter, and see the results in the main window. Advantage: equal.

    Clicking on a search result in either Beagle or Spotlight will launch the appropriate application for that document. Advantage: equal.

    Beagle has helpers for mail, web pages, text documents, spreadsheets, image files, audio files, instant messaging, etc. Spotlight does not have the same breadth of helpers. Advantage: Beagle.

    Beagle is integrated with inotify which means it is aware of file changes as soon as they occur. The very latest versions of OS X can do the same thing for Spotlight. Advantage: equal.

    Beagle metadata is stored in the ext3 filesystem, associated with the file, so when you move the file the metadata moves with it. Beagle also provides a legacy database for filesystems that don't support file metadata. OS X does not provide a legacy database so you can't store metadata for files on filesystems such as found on removable drives. Advantage: Beagle.

    Neither Beagle nor Spotlight are integrated with any applications other than the Finder or the Finder equivalent. Some OS X applications give the illusion that they have Spotlight functionality by using the same magnifying glass icon. In fact, they are using a separate metadata database and their own search routines. Advantage: equal.

    Beagle looks ugly and Spotlight looks ugly. However Spotlight is the least ugly of the two though it fails a number of human interface design rules. Advantage: you decide.

    Spotlight has been rammed down everybody's throat when it's blindingly obvious that it was rushed for Tiger. Beagle is still an optional feature on most distros. Advantage: you decide.