Re: Patches for editor

[Pavel Roskin <proski gnu org>]

Hi, Steef!

Another reply to the same e-mail after looking deeper into the problem.

> Please find a patch against mc-4.5.54 for the editor containing the
> missing ALT-B bracket button and some more. Also, I've fixed and beefed
> up the status line a bit and fixed the bug that randomly ate the right
> bit.

I've applied the part fixing typos in comments :-)
I went even further and eliminated all "begining"s in the source.

Seriously, if you present a patch to the developers it's better to refrain
from unrelated changes - your patch would be easier to read.

> Can someone tell me what's wrong with the user menu?

I think it never worked. It's a result of an incomplete merge with
Colledit.

> Most functions in the distribution version from the menu overwrite the
> file being edited instead of pasting the output into
> ~/.cedit/cooledit.block
> which basically destroys the input file.

The editor in MC uses expand_format() from src/user.c - the same function
as the MC menu. %b is intepreted as described in mc.1: "The current file
name without extension."

So if you are editing "foo.txt" then the output of the menu commands goes
to "foo".

Here's a typical backtrace from a breakpoint on expand_format:

#0  expand_format (c=98 'b', quote=1) at user.c:187
#1  0x0806432a in execute_menu_command (
    commands=0x8149e01 "b\n\n+ y unknown & t r\na       Author description
header\n        unset LANG\n        AUTHOR=\"$(cat /etc/passwd |grep ^$(id
-un) |awk -F: '{print($5)}')\"\n        cat >>%b <<EOF\n        ", '-'
<repeats 19 times>...) at user.c:601
#2  0x080649f3 in user_menu_cmd (edit_widget=0x8124270) at user.c:783
#3  0x080b86de in user_menu (edit=0x8124270) at edit.c:2778
#4  0x080b822b in edit_execute_cmd (edit=0x8124270, command=425,
char_for_insertion=-1)
    at edit.c:2605
#5  0x080b73ba in edit_execute_key_command (edit=0x8124270, command=425,
    char_for_insertion=-1) at edit.c:2155
#6  0x080bf841 in edit_callback (h=0x810f6a8, e=0x8124270, msg=4,
par=1011)
    at editwidget.c:1214
#7  0x0806e03b in dlg_key_event (h=0x810f6a8, d_key=1011) at dlg.c:763

As you can see, user_menu() from the editor source calls user_menu_cmd()
from the main MC source.

user_menu_cmd() in src/user.c is clearly editor-specific - it should be in
edit.c. It calls execute_menu_command() that is preceded by the following
comment:

/* FIXME: recode this routine on version 3.0, it could be cleaner */

We are already at 4.5.44 and it's still there. Anyway, this function
doesn't know whether we are in the editor or not. Neither does
expand_format().

Solution: the editor needs its own expand_format() aware of BLOCK_FILE.

> Is anyone actively working on that functionality?

Nobody, but the fix will be welcome.

-- 
Regards,
Pavel Roskin