Re: Menu...

[David Puryear <dayear codenet net>]

On 18-Mar-99 Ian Campbell wrote:
> 
> I did implement a simple example of what this discussion led too. 
> 
> Basically menu items are defined as objects with properties.  These
> objects could have their properties overriden, ie by a user. Properties
> consist of things like: the command to execute, a title, the parent menu,
> if the item should be shown, icon etc.  This way a user can customise the
> system menu simply by overiding the properties in their own menu
> directory, without needing to touch the system menu.

That would be very nice.
 
> For example I can remove a menu item by setting the show property to
> false, or I can move it to another menu by changing the parent menu
> property, etc.
> 
> The objects also support inheritance, so you can put apps into
> 'catagories' ie apps.editors.emacs and apps.editors.gedit. this way
> setting a property on apps.editors can effect both emacs and gedit, ie I
> can set all sub-items to appear in a particular menu (unless they override
> it), or I can set a default icon for all editors.
>
> Of course the menu's themselves are also a type of object and have similar
> propeties, like their parent menu, an icon, etc. So you can move entire
> menu's around too, by changing their parent.
> 
> The example code I wrote simply parses all the files in the system and
> user directories and uses them to build the menu, it allows you to browse 
> (but not change) the properties of the objects as well as see how the
> final menu is built. 
>  
> I have to admit it's been several weeks since I touched the code, mainly
> because I figured no-one would be all that interested till after 1.0 was
> released, but if anyone want's to see what has been done, just ask. 

Yes, I would be very interested in this.

        Thanks,
        David
> 
> Cheers,
> Ian