Re: [9front] [PATCH] programmable menus for rio

[qwx@sciops.net]

On Wed Aug 24 07:01:48 +0200 2022, moody@mail.posixcafe.org wrote:
> On 8/23/22 20:46, ori@eigenstate.org wrote:
> > Quoth Jacob Moody <moody@mail.posixcafe.org>:
> >> Something I've been playing with is a way of exposing part of the rio
> >> menu to the programs running within it. This is a bit of a simple
> >> approach, but I would like to gauge interest that people have in
> >> something along these lines before continuing.
> >>
> >> This adds a /dev/menu file that can be written to
> >> to add new entries to the button3menu. The file
> >> can be read to get the text string of an added
> >> menu entry when hit by the user.
> >>
> >> Thanks,
> >> moody
> >>
> > 
> > It seems like an interesting trick -- but, the
> > programs that might use it would already likely
> > be graphical, no?
> > 
> 
> Switching languages via special character in ktrans
> doesn't feel quite right to me. I wanted a graphical
> way of switching them, and it seemed like something
> I wanted on the rio menu.

This is interesting.  umbraticus and I experimented with adding menu2
entries in sam for commands we use all of the time.  Initially I tried
doing this with menu entries for adding/removing items, but it was
horrible.  umbraticus proposed defining a new sam command `M' which
adds or removes a menu entry: as an example, `M ^R mk install' would
add `^R mk install' verbatim to the menu (R being some sam script),
and sending this again would remove it.  We both have scripts which
define a bunch of rc functions to use within sam, which also works for
adding stuff at the start of a session.  Then, while using sam, one
can add or remove commands one ends up using a whole bunch during a
session instead of switching to the command menu, finding, selecting
and sending them, which happens way too often for me (for example,
things like `|fmt -l 80', `|cmd |awk ...' or `!window -m -cd ...
cmd', etc.).  This works very nicely in my case.

For rio, it's a bit different, and I don't know how it would work out
or what the best interface would be, but I think it's worth
discussing.

Cheers,
qwx