On Thu, 29 Mar 2018 14:14:21 +0200 aitor_czr <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi Steve, > > On 29/01/18 08:05, Steve Litt wrote: > > Hi Aitor, > > > > I skimmed your source, and also the source of menu-cache.h, which I > > found on the net someplace. I couldn't figure out the structure by > > which your menu hierarchy is stored on the hard disk. Do you have > > any documentation about configuring popupmenu's menu hierarchy? > > > > Does popupmenu's menu hierarchy get updated every time someone > > installs a new application? That would be a cool thing to add to > > UMENU2, but I have no idea how to do it. > > > > Does popupmenu have, or will it have, a mode by which someone can > > modify the menu hierarchy or add/delete/change menu items via an > > intuitive form that asks for and acquires user input? That's > > something UMENU2 doesn't have yet. > > > > You mentioned that part of popupmenu isn't as fast as you'd like > > (presumably slower than the user can type/mouse). Does popupmenu run > > anew everytime someone clicks on the start button? I'm pretty sure > > any time consumption at all comparable to human typing speed > > involves reading from the hard disk. In UMENU Classic I solved this > > by busting the hierarchy file into individual single menu files. It > > was a mess. UMENU2 puts the entire hierarchy in a directory tree, > > so the entirety of the requested menu's information is contained in > > the direct subdirectories of that menu entry's directory. Which > > makes it lightning fast. Maybe you can do something like UMENU > > Classic or UMENU2, or perhaps create an index file to point at > > specific menus within the hierarchy. Or maybe the code in > > menu-cache.h/menu-cache.c is meant to address this problem. > > > > Menus are fun, aren't they? > > > > SteveT > > I'm a bit confused about umenu. You talk about two (different?) > projects in troubleshooters.com: dmenu and umenu. Are they the same? No. Very different. Each has its use, with dmenu more commonly useful. I authored UMENU(2). The Suckless Tools people authored dmenu. > I thought that umenu was developed in python, but seems to be written > in perl, isn't it? The original was written in Perl in 1998. Since then, I've rewritten it in Ruby (mid 00's), then Lua (late 00's or early 10's), and then UMENU2 in Python. IMHO UMENU2 is much, much, much better than UMENU classic. > > BTW, there are two threads dedicated to dynamic menus in the forum of > bunsenlabs (if you want to follow them): > > https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic.php?id=3387 > https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic.php?pid=69755#p69755 Except for the tray menu, those are philosophically different from UMENU(2). UMENU is designed to be completely independent of the WM/DE, can be used without X because it's completely command line, and in its default config can even be used on a teletype terminal because its clearscreen function is 25 newlines. There can, and usually are, several UMENU instances running at once. UMENU is very effective at providing a menu front end to one or several complex command line programs so they appear to be a complete application. UMENU has Prompted Argument Substitution, so any menu command choice can be configured to prompt for its arguments. UMENU, your menu, and all the rest are miles apart from dmenu, from Suckless Tools, whose purpose is to provide a keystroke-narrowed list of executables from the executable path, so you can type a few characters, press Enter, and run the command. Dmenu doesn't substitute for these menus, nor do these menus substitute for dmenu. A well laid out menu hierarchy is easy, intuitive, discoverable, and fast. I wish they were used more often. SteveT Steve Litt April 2018 featured book: Troubleshooting Techniques of the Successful Technologist http://www.troubleshooters.com/techniques _______________________________________________ Dng mailing list [email protected] https://mailinglists.dyne.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dng
