Improve parametric part search by sorting numbers as numbers (in lists), not sorting as text.
I've just tried to find a very high brightness, narrow angle RED LED using parametric search. I thought it would be very straightforward. Optoelectronics->Visible LED. Select 'Viewing angle'. That was easy. Try to select RED. That was harder, because RED appears in many labels, 'Ultra red' 'Super red', which wasn't very helpful. I wanted any/all REDs. Then I went for Luminous intensity. I expected a sliding range like angle. But no, it's a list of values. Worse, they are sorted as if they are words, and not decimal numbers! So they are sorted by first digit, then by next digit. That is broken. The brightest should be at one end of the list, and the dimmest at the other.
Any reasonable database system worth using will have the ability to sort decimal numbers as decimal numbers. The list has the intensities in a common unit (mcd). So this should have already happened.
I've never used findchips before. I usually use octopart or a distributers parametric search. I thought I'd try findchips, expecting it would be as good as the alternatives, and maybe save time. Instead I have wasted my time trying to find plausible parts, and writing this feedback.
