Subject: Re: [Butler Talk] Parameterization of searches and scripting

From: Rob Griffiths <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2018 14:56:22 -0700

On Sep 29, 2018, at 7:10 AM, David Stein <[email-masked]> wrote:

> (I've used, and *loved*, other ManyTricks products (Moom and Witch) since I switched to MacOS back in 2011 or so. They were actually two of the very first pieces of software that I sought out to address what I perceived as deficiences in the MacOS experience. I depend on them daily, and they're two of the first packages I install on any new machine.)

Thanks! I'll pass your kind words on to Peter, Many Tricks' founder and programmer extraordinaire.

> I know that Butler doesn't support parameters, so instead I have to type "g", hit Enter, and then type my query into a second search box that the abbreviation creates. It's okay - and unlike Alfred, it works perfectly every time! - but it's just a little more inefficient.

We can't quite do what Alfred does, but if you've assigned a single-key shortcut to the search engine (i.e. 'g') in Butler's Search Engine prefs, then you can press Control-Space (Butler's abbreviation entry shortcut), then type "g what to find" and Google will search for "what to find."

Does that help a bit?

regards;
-rob.

---

From: David Stein <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 29 Sep 2018 07:10:30 -0700 (PDT)

Hello, everyone - new Butler user here.

(I've used, and *loved*, other ManyTricks products (Moom and Witch) since I 
switched to MacOS back in 2011 or so. They were actually two of the very 
first pieces of software that I sought out to address what I perceived as 
deficiences in the MacOS experience. I depend on them daily, and they're 
two of the first packages I install on any new machine.)

A few months ago, I switched to Butler from Alfred, after using the latter 
package for about five years. My need, in both cases, is very simple and 
direct: I want to assign keywords to scripts, and I want to be enter a 
keyword (or part of a keyword) and have the associated script executed. 
It's a simple task, but it needs to happen instantaneously and correctly. 
Alfred, frankly, sucks at the "correct" part: its "smart" adaptive 
algorithm spontaneously changes its scoring and priorities for keywords 
according to some very poor logic. Consistency suffers, and it fell below 
my tolerance. So here I am.

Butler is very good at this task. In fact, there is only one feature of 
Alfred that I miss in Butler: parameterized searches.

Alfred permits the inclusion of parameters, where anything following a 
matched keyword is treated like a parameter and passed into the workflow or 
script. So if I want to create a shortcut for searching Google, I can 
create a parameterized workflow, assign it to the keyword "g", and then 
execute Google searches simply by typing "g [some search query]." Alfred 
takes a few further steps to make this feature work well - such as an 
option to substitute pluses for spaces when the parameter is subbed into a 
URL - but that's just gravy, and rather optional.

I know that Butler doesn't support parameters, so instead I have to type 
"g", hit Enter, and then type my query into a second search box that the 
abbreviation creates. It's okay - and unlike Alfred, it works perfectly 
every time! - but it's just a little more inefficient.

Any chance of this type of feature being added to Butler?