Sean 'Shaleh' Perry wrote:
>
> On 07-Jul-2000 John Kennis wrote:
> > On Fri, 7 Jul 2000 18:23:31 +0200 you wrote:
> >
> > > would it be hard to write a patch for this
> > > menu-keyboard-support thing ?
> > >
> > That wouldn't be easy. However implementing the entire menu in bbkeys
> > shouldn't be too difficult. Most of the code can be copied
> > from blackbox. It can read the blackbox configuration files
> > so it would look the same. Only functions such as restart and
> > change style wouldn't work.
> >
>
> I'd rather write a patch to bb and let it be one of the things used by those
> who want it. Supporting it would be fairly trivial.
The problem with key navigable menus is that they require blackbox
to do keygrabs on the arrow keys, which means that at least while
any menus are visible no other app would get those keys. WindowMaker's
solution to this is not to do key grabs when the mouse is used to
create the menu, but only when a keyboard shortcut is used to display
the menu. For blackbox, this would require either reintroducing keyboard
shortcuts to blackbox, or a collection of show-menu messages for use
by bbkeys.
Frankly I judge the odds of something like show-menu hints making the
WM spec somewhere on the small side of zero (mind you, that is only
slightly smaller than the odds I'd give that the wm spec will be
standardized at all). Regardless, I find the notion of a show-menu
message kind of ugly.
Why not just use bbkeys to set up shortcuts for your most commonly used
menu items? The MSWindows keys are perfect for this, since if you use
xmodmap to set them up as Super or Hyper they generally won't interfere
with the keygrabs most apps use (since they tend to rely only on Control
and Mod1). Personally I've got a number of convenient Hyper+key combos
set to launch terms, editors, etc.
Of course, nyz may have other thoughts on the matter.
Jeff 'the buck don't stop here' Raven
