The search string should be used in determining the score

[lefth]

Right now, the frequency of use determines which directory is chosen when there are multiple matches. I suggest the closeness of the match should also be used, and that should take precedence over the frequency score.

Why? Because the user can control zoxide's behavior by typing a more specific name. Also because it's very unexpected when I type z Cat and zoxide takes me to "duplicates". It's unintuitive that the search string is used to filter results but not to select a result.

I suggest directories should be ranked based on how good a match they are with the search term, and the frequency score can be used to break ties. Or the frequency score could be incorporated with a lower weight: total score = match quality * 0.8 + frequency score * 0.2.

[lefth]

Preliminary suggestion about the rules, which should be adjusted to avoid wrong behavior:

The best matches would match the case (or smartcase) and would match the search term as a word, like \bTheSearchTerm\b
The next best matches would be as above, but the case need not match.
The next best matches would match the case (or smartcase) and would match the search term on a left word boundary.
The next best matches would be as above, but the case need not match.
The next best matches would be directories that have the search as a substring (case matching).
As above, but case not matching.
Optional: The worst matches would be fuzzy matches, possibly using fzf or sk.

(Case changes should also be considered a word boundary, such that "HelloWorld" and "helloWorld" are each counted as two words.)

[lefth]

@ajeetdsouza What do you think about this change? Is it a direction you'd like this program to go in?

[ajeetdsouza]

Hey @lefth!

I agree with what you're saying. One thing that makes zoxide easy to use is that the query algorithm is very simple and predictable, but I there is definitely room for improvement there.

Smartcase is relatively easy to do, I can pick it up in the near future. Tuning the algorithm to work well in all cases is a harder problem -- I'll try out a couple of ideas once I get the time.