This is how Squeak menus work, isn't it?  Except without the timer (what's the
main benefit of that?).

Karl wrote:

I really like the way the Macintosh finder does this: 
You start typing the name and the list jumps to that
location. After each letter there is a time counter. 
So if you look for 'findItem' 
you can type 'f', the list jumps to first item on 'f',
and if you type the next letter within the time it will
jump to 'fi' and this way you narrow down to the item you 
are looking for.