"Please enter a string" and general combobox improvements

IDA General Feature requests
1

Hey, I’ve got a few ideas/requests for minor issues that have bothered me for years at this point :slight_smile:

The first one I posted on Twitter and was referred to here.

“Please enter a string” improvements

This dialog’s input box, unlike the new “Edit function prototype” one, doesn’t scale with the window it’s in.
This also applies to many other Rename dialogs (Rename type, Rename address, Edit function, Rename struct member, etc.)

Functions have the new nice “Edit function prototype” screen, but function pointers are limited to this old “Set Type” screen. Function pointer signatures are my most common grievance with this non-scaling text box. :sweat_smile: (think non-cleaned up virtual function calls in a C++ binary)

I’d also love to see the recently added type autocompletion added to “Edit type” to work in the “Set type” screen. And, if I’m allowed to dream, syntax highlighting and bracket matching for more complex types. :slight_smile:

General combobox improvements

The super common single-combobox dialogs have also one further annoyance: Typing into these boxes shows the dropdown of previously-entered entries that start with what you enter:

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This causes an annoying little inconsistency, though: If the combobox is open, even if I don’t select any entry via arrow keys, it requires a second [Enter] key press to close it. The first one just closes the combobox. In my opinion, this breaks muscle memory as sometimes the dialog can be closed with one [Enter] press, but sometimes it can’t.

My suggestion would be to only intercept the Dialog default action if a combobox entry is actually selected/focused (with the little dotted focus border).

As simple as these are, I think these are my top annoyances in the core IDA flow, and I hope these can be improved in some way. :slight_smile:

1 Like
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Hi @seri, first of all, thanks for describing those annoyances so thoroughly here.

You’ve made a valid point that small UI improvements can have an enormous impact on everyday workflows, especially when they affect actions repeated dozens of times, day after day.
It’s a good reminder for us that sometimes it’s worth refocusing on smaller details that deserve attention too, not just the bold new features that tend to steal the spotlight.

The feedback is noted, and we’ll keep these points in mind when planning future improvements.