Eclipse is an open source IDE for Java which allows users to create plug-ins to its user interface. Although Eclipse has existing Find and Search features for finding text and elements within a Java project, they are slow to use and it is difficult to navigate through the search results, particularly when the workspace consists of many large projects. Due to the lack of existing solutions for fast and easy-to-use searching and navigation of large development projects in Eclipse, a UI for "Fast Search" is needed.
The goal of the "Fast Search" project is to create a UI plug-in for Eclipse that will be fast, easy to use, easy to access, and easy to navigate. "Fast Search" will include incremental searching, so that relevant search results are continuously displayed and filtered as the user types more letters into the query.
The project will follow an iterative development cycle of design, implementation, and evaluation to allow for early feedback. It will include user testing in each cycle and will serve as a UI usability study.
[1] David Tsai. "Fast Search for Declarations: An Eclipse User Interface Study & Implementation." AUP proposal, March 2005.