Fast searching of TEXT files in a folder heirarchy.
Operation
Run the program, drag a folder from the Finder to the "In" field, type in the word you want to find and press Return or Enter to start searching.
Press Command-Period to abort the search.
The list of files that contain the word you entered will be shown when the search completes. Double-click the filename to view the file. The first occurence of the word you searched for (case insensitive) is shown in context in the list.
Double-click the line to view the file in a text window. You can find the word you searched for, or other words in this window.
You can save a document with the find string and a start folder in a document to use again in the future. I recommend saving documents with useful start folders.
Details
I wrote this little app primarily for speed, so it is unkind to other applications while searching. By default it only searches in files of type 'TEXT' and only in the first 2Mb of the file (although the entire file will be viewed if there is enough memory).
The search will cover all files inside the start folder you drag to the "in:" field and will recurse down through all subfolders in it.
While searching, the program uses system memory to load each file and examine it.
If you start the search by pressing Return a simple case-insensitive search is done, if you start the search by pressing the Enter key a (theoretically) faster Knuth-Morris-Pratt case sensitive search is done.
Programming
Written with Metrowerks Codewarrior 10 and the PowerPlant application framework. Note the nifty Apple Grayscale Appearance classes that I've started using. I'm also using the WASTE text edit replacement to display more than 32k and provide drag and drop text handling.