Simply searching for strings rarely works well as the codebase grows larger. Because besides knowing where all things named X are, you want to actually see where X is used, or where it's called from, or where it is defined.
With search you end up grepping the code twice:
- first grepping for the name
We're literally in a thread where people invent regexes for how to search the same thing (a function) defined in two different ways (as a function or as a const)
- secondly, manually grepping through search results deducing if it's relevant to what you're looking for
It becomes significantly worse if you want to include third-party libs in your search.
There are countless times when I would just Cmd+B/Cmd+Click a symbol in IDEA and continue my exploration down to Java's own libraries. There are next to zero cases when IDEA would fail to recognise a function and find its usages if it was defined as a const, not as a function. Why would I willingly deny myself these tools as so many in this thread do?
I specialize in one thing only: programming
> But I prefer tools, that I can use wherever I go.
Do you always walk everywhere, or do you use a tool available at the time, like cars, planes, bycicles, public transport?
> rather invest in tech that does not loose its value in the next iteration of the innovation cycle.
Things like "fund symbol", "find usages", "find implementation" have been available in actual tools for close to two decades now.