Suggestion: display top result while typing query

[det]

It would be wonderful if the top result were displayed in the results/definition pane while typing the look-up query. The list of words already sorts as the query is typed, so it would be just a matter of having the top word display. (As it is, you have to hit enter or the down arrow to get a definition to come up)

As small a feature as this may be, it would make a huge difference for a heavy user like myself. Often I would only have to type part of the word, and then could keep the cursor in the 'Look up' box, ready to type the next query. You've probably already heard this one, but here's one more plea for it. (And thanks for the great work!)

[Gloggy]

Hmmm, but that would be very computation-intensive. Say, you have 50 dictionaries, and typing every letter would lead to searching the right word and displaying it (and displaying tens of pages of HTML-heavy text is not that fast) would consume lots of CPU resources.

So you're willing to trade just a single keystroke (Enter or Down Arrow) with slow and CPU-heavy process?

Also, consider web-dictionaries, trying to query those after every entered letter would be very, very wrong and horribly slow.

Well, I guess, the feature could be implemented in such a way that there is some timeout defined so that the query is done only when user stopped typing for some small period of time. But then again, you'll get the results after that timeout and typing Enter would be just faster than typing a word and wait a bit to get the results.

So, is this single keystroke (Enter or Down) *that* inconvenient to you? Personally, I have no problem with it at all.

[det]

The situation where this is most helpful is when I'm reading another language, and have to repeatedly look up words as I read them. In this case, there is only one text-only dictionary involved. So the extra computation load wouldn't be too great. I have really appreciated this feature on other dictionary software (e.g. LingoPad), and it didn't cause any noticeable slow-down.

In these situations, it often much more than one keystroke is involved because I don't know the actual root word (the word I'm looking for may have a prefix, suffix or particular verb conjugation). I use the down key to check one entry, if that is incorrect, I have up-arrow back to the lookup box and modify the query to check another. It would be much faster to just type/backspace/retype (all the time in the same search box) until I have the correct word displayed.

I imagine such a feature would need an on/off switch, but it certainly would be very useful in the situation I describe, which accounts for 90+% of my GoldenDict use.

[Gloggy]

Got it.

Btw, do you use the "Scan Popup" feature? That should radically improve situation in your case, there will be no need to type anything.
Or, probably, you're reading actual books, not texts on your PC?

[det]

Yes, actual paper books...