Comment 14 for bug 310239

The majority of computer users don't know what wildcards are, and they shouldn't have to. The default option should not require wildcards.

Even though I've used wildcards many times, I thought KFind was broken. Why? Because there is nothing to inform users that KFind requires wildcards! Requiring wildcards without letting the user know is extremely bad design. Even advanced users can become confused by this.

I would prefer a drop-down list labeled "Search method" with the options "substring", "exact match", "wildcards", and "regular expression".

Whatever kind of interface is chosen, substring matching should be the default. If it's not, KFind should at least tell the user what kind of input is required.