Re: Definite menu code rewrite

[Moshe Zadka <m@moshez.org>]

On Wed, 17 Jul 2002, Chris Lawrence <lawrencc@debian.org> wrote:

> 7. New code to replace /etc/menu-methods will have to be written.
>    This may be the most challenging part of the project.  The upside
>    is that not many of these need to be written, and I hope to come up
>    with something much easier to use than the bizarre language
>    install-menus uses.

Though "he who makes the code makes the rules", let me nonetheless
offer my votes: either Python (preferable) or Perl. In both cases,
you have no need to document the *syntax* someone with way more
time and (without offering any insult) way more competent has done
it. Let me even suggest that instead of dictating a language, just
offer either a Perl or a Python library doing most of the stuff.

So, a common menu-method (say, for ZWM) might look like

#!/usr/bin/python
import debmenu

def _escape(self, s):
	return s.replace('"', '\\"')

class ZWMMenuGenerator(debmenu.MenuGenerator):

	def start_menu(self):
		self.out('Menu(')

	def start_submenu(self, submenuName):
		self.out('Submenu("' + _escape(subMenuName)+'",')

	def end_submenu(self):
		self.out('),')

	def do_item(self, item):
		self.out('Item("%s", "%s"),' % (_escape(item.command),
		                                _escape(item.name)))

	def end_menu(self):
		self.out(')')


if __name__ == '__main__':
	demenu.main(ZWMMenuGenerator)

or (were I insane enough to write in Perl):

#!/usr/bin/perl
sub escape {
	my $s = $_[0];
	$s =~ s/"/\\"/;
}

package ZWMenuGenerator;
@ISA = ('debmenu::MenuGenerator');


sub start_menu {
	$_[0]->out('Menu(');
}

sub start_submenu {
	$_[0]->out('Submenu("' . escape($_[1]) . '",');
}

sub end_submenu {
	$_[0]->out(')')
}

sub do_item {
	$_[0]->out('Item("' escape($_[1]->command) . '", "'
	                . escape($_[1]->name) . '"),')
}

sub end_menu {
	$_[0]->out(')')
}

debmenu::main('ZWMMenuGenerator')


(both contain probably contain bugs, and are meant only as proof of concept.
Especially flames about how godawful my Perl is, or how I don't know the
first thing about OO Perl, will be redirected to /dev/null)


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