Hybrid autocomplete/select list

Ok, this is a bit of a complicated feature request as it spans both the js used for autocomplete, and the modules that tie into it.

Currently I use the Option Widgets module (part of CCK) to provide an autocomplete box for node references. Off the shelf, it only shows ten results when some text is typed in, and no indication that there is anymore (this is actually mentioned in this issue - http://drupal.org/node/100727).

Usually, starting to type in the title is fine for a node reference field that links to a smallish set of nodes. However, a site that I designed for the administration of students contains 600 nodes for one type, all of which the title is the based on a Chinese name. This sometimes makes it difficult to find the name of the student you're wanting to reference, especially if you're not that great at spelling Chinese names :-).

I could, potentially, use a select box... but with 600 nodes, I'd rather not! As a result, I've been playing around with the optionwidgets.module and my theme's style.css file. I now have it so that:

1). There is no limit on the list of nodes. But boy, that can be a long list! So, I decided to...
2). Set the #autocomplete div to be a set height and to scroll.

This then gives user the ability to have both a select box effect and a filter. Then I had a random idea, and played around with the autocomplete.js file so that:

3). When the input box gains focus, it produces an autocomplete box showing all the results (i.e. no filter).

Obviously, this would have an impact on performance, but in my case it's something that I really need. I thought I would share this with others to see if it's something other people would find useful - it would certainly be useful to have that capability without having to mess around with core :-).

Perhaps these changes could be made as an options for autocomplete fields so that people could opt for different options?

If there needs to be any clarification, I'll be more than happy to oblige :-).

Jack