UX improvement on Find Class

[claude]

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Migrated from GitLab: GemStone/grail#34

[ericwinger]

Closing this — the ranking asked for here shipped with GemStone Search (#378).

client/src/omniSearch/omniMatch.ts ranks an exact match first, then prefix matches shortest-first, then mid-name matches. Running the real matcher over the class names containing Object, case-insensitive, in the default fuzzy mode:

  1 Object                     score 44
  2 ObjectLog                  score 41
  3 ObjectStub                 score 41
  4 ObjectAudit                score 40
  5 ObjectHandle               score 40
  6 ObjectHistory              score 40
  7 ObjectLogEntry             score 39
  8 ObjectFilterSet            score 39
  9 ObjectSecurityPolicy       score 38
 10 BadObjectError             score 35
 11 RcObjectHolder             score 35
 12 SmallObjectStub            score 35
 13 GsObjectInventory          score 35
 14 PersistentObjectCache      score 34
 15 GsObjectSecurityPolicy     score 34
 16 AbstractObjectSerializer   score 34

Against the three suggestions in this thread:

• Exact match first, then by where the match starts — done. A match at index 0 scores higher than a mid-name one, and a contiguous run is always preferred over a scattered subsequence.
• A 6-character match on a 6-character name beats one on a 30-character name — done, in two places: the score scales by how much of the target the match covers, and target length is the first tiebreaker between equal scores. That is the ObjectLog → ObjectSecurityPolicy gradient above.
• Wildcard-style control over the match (*q* / q* / q) — mostly done. The semantics exist as three match modes, fuzzy / substring / prefix, switchable from a button in the search panel header or the gemstone.omniSearch.matchMode setting. It is a mode toggle rather than inline wildcards in the query, and the no-wildcard exact case is not there yet.

Two loose ends are carried forward in #479:

1. Ctrl+K C / GemStone: Find Class… still runs the old standalone QuickPick, which does not use this matcher at all — so the ranking above is not what you see from the command named in this issue. GemStone Search: retire the standalone Find Class picker and add an exact match mode #479 retires it and points that keybinding at GemStone Search with the Classes scope preselected.
2. The exact match mode.

One decision worth recording: the sort is score, then target length, then alphabetical, so length beats alphabetical rather than the other way round. The alternative floated here — alphabetical as the base order with exact matches lifted to the top — is not what shipped. #479 notes how to revisit that if it is the wrong call.

To try the current behaviour: Ctrl+Shift+A (GemStone Search), Classes scope. @hernan please reopen or comment on #479 if the ordering still is not what you want.

See also #471 (GemStone Search UI polish) and #242 (Find Class / Find Method buttons in the system browser, a separate discoverability ask).