[cdt-dev] Fast vs. Full Indexing ?

["Rich Wagner" <richwagner@xxxxxxxxxx>]

We're extending Eclipse/CDT, and one of the issues we're facing is the need for robust support for C/C++ searching.  I'm hoping some of you might be able to provide advice about CDT's indexing options.  We're using the 3.1.0 version of CDT in Eclipse 3.2.0. 
  
We're considering changes which would (a) switch the current "Preferences" default indexer from "none" to either "fast" or "full", and (b) include a one-time-only pass over users' existing projects, to convert their indexers from "none" to "fast" or "full".

  
But:  Which indexer?  From what I've seen in CDT's Bugzilla reports and other web searches, it seems "fast" has the disadvantage of preventing some C/C++ searches from succeeding, whereas "full" indexing can be prohibitively time-consuming for large projects. 
  
We could prompt the user, to make the choice of fast vs. full... 
  

But from a usability perspective, we're concerned that the choice will leave average users mystified.  Is it possible to summarize which cases fail when fast indexing is chosen?  Is it possible to summarize the difference in overhead?  Any recommendations for a default?
 

Thanks in advance for any help you might provide, 
  
Rich Wagner
Senior Software Development Engineer
Tilera Corporation