[ALUG] 'locate' isn't always helpful, how to do better?

[Eur Ing Chris Green]

While the 'locate' command is very useful at times, especially if you
have lost a specific file it's much less useful when looking for, for
example, a directory which has a rather common name.

E.g. I was just trying to find where I have bits of vmware installed,
doing a 'locate vmware' just produces zillions of lines of output. I
don't (in this case) want to know all the files which are located
somewhere below a 'vmware' directory, I just want to know the location
of the directory.

I know I can use an RE in locate but it's not all *that* simple to
come up with an RE to do it.

I could also use 'find' which would get me exactly the result I want
with a fairly straightforward command, but it would take ages.

What I really want is a 'find' that uses the locate database, I'm
surprised no one has written one - or have they?

-- 
Chris Green