Agency Insider: Where's that block?

Welcome to the first installment of Agency Insider, where we give you a sneak preview of features slated for upcoming releases! Today's feature will be available in the next release, Preview 3, which is due out this summer.

Block languages make it easier for us to program because we don't have to remember the names of the commands or what types of arguments they take. All we have to do is find the command we want in the block factory, drag it out, and connect it in the right spot. The problem is that sometimes we can't remember which category the block we want is in. Another tricky problem is when we've been working on a really large project for a while with dozens and dozens of blocks, and we can't remember where we put parts of our program. Sure, the Minimap helps us find our way around, but we often wished that we could just search for the block we're looking for, the same way we use Google to find a web site quickly instead of hunting through our bookmarks.

Well, now we can search for blocks, and when Preview 3 is ready to be released, then you can too! We added a handy search bar to the corner of the Blocks view:


As you type into the search bar, StarLogoBlocks begins to light up, highlighting every block bright yellow that contains what you typed in its name. Below, I typed "set." Both the "setx" and the "set height" blocks contain the letters "set," so they light up, both in the workspace and in the factory. You'll also notice yellow splotches on the Minimap that show where other "..set.." blocks are that we can't see. For example, the tall one in the middle is a "Setup" block.


Also, notice that some of the categories lit up yellow as well: Interface, Movement, Colors, Control, and Traits. That's because those are all of the categories that contain blocks that have "set" in their name. So, now, if you ever forget where the "setx" block is, just search for it, and the Movement category will glow yellow!


To make it even easier to use search, we added a few extra menu items and keyboard shortcuts:
"Find Blocks" is nothing special; it just moves your cursor to the search bar so you can start typing your search term. After you type your search term, and a bunch of blocks on the workspace turn yellow, you can use "Find Again" or "Find Previous" to jump to the next or previous block in the search results. Actually, "jumping" is not the right word; it's more like you fly to the next block. The workspace glides from wherever you were looking over to the next block so it becomes the center of your view.

Finally, "Find Related Blocks" is for those times when you're looking at a procedure and want to find all the places where it gets called, or you are using a variable and wish you could find the variable declaration block so you can rename it. "Find Related Blocks" searches the workspace for blocks with the same name as the last block you clicked on. Since procedure call and definition blocks have the same name, and since variable declaration, getter, and setter blocks all have the same root name, Find Related Blocks helps you find all those similar blocks instantly.

We are really excited about the new search feature, and we can't wait to share it with you in Preview 3!