C++ Masterclass: Building Search Everything - From Linear to Instant
Why?
If you want to really master a programming language, build something complex with it. Not "hard for the sake of hard," but hard because of the nature of the problem. Complexity forces you to understand the language deep enough to express yourself fluently.
Being able to express yourself well in a language lets you tackle complex problems; and vice versa, tackling a complex problem forces you to rise to that level. Otherwise, you'll have a rough time.
Search Everything is that kind of problem. It looks simple on the surface, but it's deceptively deep. The search shown below? Instant. Something even Microsoft hasn't figured out or likely chose to ignore. Try using Windows Search, then use Everything; you'll feel the difference immediately.
In this series, you'll build your own version from scratch, learning C++ and systems programming along the way.
What You'll Build
Search Everything looks simple on the surface, but it's deceptively deep. Generations of programmers (including me) have begged the developer to open source it, and for good reason. It's a beautiful piece of software that delivers instant search results across your entire file system.
In this series, you'll learn low-level programming with C++ by building a cross-platform search engine and indexer inspired by Search Everything.
What we'll cover:
- Part 1: Complete linear MVP with O(n) search
- Part 2: Optimization techniques (O(1) and O(log n))
- Part 3: Binary serialization for persistent indexing
- Part 4: System calls and file watchers for live updates
Bonus content: UI integration, system tray functionality, and advanced fuzzy search algorithms.
Prerequisites: Be an advanced beginner in any programming language; you should have a solid grasp of fundamentals like variables, loops, functions, and basic data structures. Everything else is explained step-by-step.
Course curriculum
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1Intro