bug#12067: 24.1; improper menu formatting with multiple \t chars

bug#12067: 24.1; improper menu formatting with multiple \t chars

[Drew Adams]

emacs -Q

(defcustom foo [:ascii:]
  "..."
  :type
  '(choice :tag "Foobar"
    (const :tag "A\t\t- [:ascii:]"                                [:ascii:])
    (const :tag "Bbbbbb\t\t- [:nonascii:]"                        [:nonascii:])
    (const :tag "Cccccccccccc\t\t- [:word:]"                      [:word:])
    (const :tag "Dddddddddddddddddddddddddd\t\t- [:alnum:]"       [:alnum:])
    (const :tag "Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee\t- [:alpha:]" [:alpha:]))
  :group 'convenience)

M-x customize-option foo
 
Click button Value Menu to see the menu.  Each time \t\t is used, there
is a rectangular artifact added also.
 
It turns out that using only a single \t does the right thing in terms
of alignment in this case.  But shouldn't multiple \t's let you tab
(indent) further, as they do in text buffers, doc strings, etc.?  And
presumably \t\t should not draw a rectangle, in any case.
 

In GNU Emacs 24.1.1 (i386-mingw-nt5.1.2600)
 of 2012-06-10 on MARVIN
Windowing system distributor `Microsoft Corp.', version 5.1.2600
Configured using:
 `configure --with-gcc (4.6) --cflags
 -ID:/devel/emacs/libs/libXpm-3.5.8/include
 -ID:/devel/emacs/libs/libXpm-3.5.8/src
 -ID:/devel/emacs/libs/libpng-dev_1.4.3-1/include
 -ID:/devel/emacs/libs/zlib-dev_1.2.5-2/include
 -ID:/devel/emacs/libs/giflib-4.1.4-1/include
 -ID:/devel/emacs/libs/jpeg-6b-4/include
 -ID:/devel/emacs/libs/tiff-3.8.2-1/include
 -ID:/devel/emacs/libs/gnutls-3.0.9/include'
 

bug#12067: 24.1; improper menu formatting with multiple \t chars

[Jason Rumney]

"Drew Adams" <drew.adams@oracle.com> writes:

> It turns out that using only a single \t does the right thing in terms
> of alignment in this case.  But shouldn't multiple \t's let you tab
> (indent) further, as they do in text buffers, doc strings, etc.?  And
> presumably \t\t should not draw a rectangle, in any case.

No. A menu is not a buffer.

bug#12067: 24.1; improper menu formatting with multiple \t chars

[Drew Adams]

> > It turns out that using only a single \t does the right 
> > thing in terms of alignment in this case.  But shouldn't
> > multiple \t's let you tab (indent) further, as they do
> > in text buffers, doc strings, etc.?  And
> > presumably \t\t should not draw a rectangle, in any case.
> 
> No. A menu is not a buffer.

No one said it is.

bug#12067: 24.1; improper menu formatting with multiple \t chars

[Jason Rumney]

"Drew Adams" <drew.adams@oracle.com> writes:

>> > It turns out that using only a single \t does the right 
>> > thing in terms of alignment in this case.  But shouldn't
>> > multiple \t's let you tab (indent) further, as they do
>> > in text buffers, doc strings, etc.?  And
>> > presumably \t\t should not draw a rectangle, in any case.
>> 
>> No. A menu is not a buffer.
>
> No one said it is.

You seem to be requesting it to act like one above.

In Windows menus, a tab character is a not valid printing character,
hence is drawn as a rectangle.  An exception is that if one, and only
one, tab character appears in a menu string, it is used as a separator
to separate the menu text (left aligned in most locales) from the key
shortcut (right aligned in those locales).

YMMV with menus on other platforms however.

bug#12067: 24.1; improper menu formatting with multiple \t chars

[Drew Adams]

> In Windows menus, a tab character is a not valid printing character,
> hence is drawn as a rectangle.  An exception is that if one, and only
> one, tab character appears in a menu string, it is used as a separator
> to separate the menu text (left aligned in most locales) from the key
> shortcut (right aligned in those locales).

I see.  Perhaps that should be mentioned in the doc?

If Emacs cannot control or work around that limitation, so be it.
Feel free to close the enhancement request as unrealizable in that case.

> YMMV with menus on other platforms however.

Got it.  Thx.

bug#12067: 24.1; improper menu formatting with multiple \t chars

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: "Drew Adams" <drew.adams@oracle.com>
> Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2012 23:49:55 -0700
> 
> emacs -Q
> 
> (defcustom foo [:ascii:]
>   "..."
>   :type
>   '(choice :tag "Foobar"
>     (const :tag "A\t\t- [:ascii:]"                                [:ascii:])
>     (const :tag "Bbbbbb\t\t- [:nonascii:]"                        [:nonascii:])
>     (const :tag "Cccccccccccc\t\t- [:word:]"                      [:word:])
>     (const :tag "Dddddddddddddddddddddddddd\t\t- [:alnum:]"       [:alnum:])
>     (const :tag "Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee\t- [:alpha:]" [:alpha:]))
>   :group 'convenience)
> 
> M-x customize-option foo
>  
> Click button Value Menu to see the menu.  Each time \t\t is used, there
> is a rectangular artifact added also.

I cannot reproduce this here, neither in Emacs 24.1 nor in the current
trunk version.

What I did was copy-paste your example to a fresh Emacs session, then
"M-x eval-region RET", then "M-x customize-option RET foo RET" and
click the "Value Menu" to display the menu.  It displayed correctly,
nicely aligned and with no artifacts.

bug#12067: 24.1; improper menu formatting with multiple \t chars

[Drew Adams]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 610 bytes --]

> > emacs -Q
> > (defcustom foo [:ascii:]
> >   "..."
> >   :type
> >   '(choice :tag "Foobar"
> >     (const :tag "A\t\t- [:ascii:]"  [:ascii:])
...
>
> I cannot reproduce this here, neither in Emacs 24.1 nor in the current
> trunk version.
> 
> What I did was copy-paste your example to a fresh Emacs session, then
> "M-x eval-region RET", then "M-x customize-option RET foo RET" and
> click the "Value Menu" to display the menu.  It displayed correctly,
> nicely aligned and with no artifacts.

What can I say?  I do exactly that, with Emacs 24.1 and emacs -Q, and I see what
is in the attached screenshot.

[-- Attachment #2: throw-emacs-menu-w-tabs.png --]
[-- Type: image/png, Size: 11428 bytes --]

bug#12067: 24.1; improper menu formatting with multiple \t chars

[Michael Heerdegen]

"Drew Adams" <drew.adams@oracle.com> writes:

> > > emacs -Q
> > > (defcustom foo [:ascii:]
> > >   "..."
> > >   :type
> > >   '(choice :tag "Foobar"
> > >     (const :tag "A\t\t- [:ascii:]"  [:ascii:])
> ...
> >
> > I cannot reproduce this here, neither in Emacs 24.1 nor in the current
> > trunk version.
> > 
> > What I did was copy-paste your example to a fresh Emacs session, then
> > "M-x eval-region RET", then "M-x customize-option RET foo RET" and
> > click the "Value Menu" to display the menu.  It displayed correctly,
> > nicely aligned and with no artifacts.
>
> What can I say?  I do exactly that, with Emacs 24.1 and emacs -Q, and
> I see what
> is in the attached screenshot.

A third version: I see no artifacts, but also no nice alignment.  Looks
like tab chars are formatted for me as spaces with constant width.  (I
use emacs-snapshot on Debian.)

bug#12067: 24.1; improper menu formatting with multiple \t chars

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Michael Heerdegen <michael_heerdegen@web.de>
> Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2012 22:24:00 +0200
> 
> A third version: I see no artifacts, but also no nice alignment.  Looks
> like tab chars are formatted for me as spaces with constant width.  (I
> use emacs-snapshot on Debian.)

Please state the toolkit that was used to build Emacs.  This issue is
definitely toolkit-dependent.

bug#12067: 24.1; improper menu formatting with multiple \t chars

[Michael Heerdegen]

Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:

> > A third version: I see no artifacts, but also no nice alignment.  Looks
> > like tab chars are formatted for me as spaces with constant width.  (I
> > use emacs-snapshot on Debian.)
>
> Please state the toolkit that was used to build Emacs.  This issue is
> definitely toolkit-dependent.

GNU Emacs 24.1.50.1 (i486-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.4.2)
 of 2012-07-21 on keller, modified by Debian

bug#12067: 24.1; improper menu formatting with multiple \t chars

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Michael Heerdegen <michael_heerdegen@web.de>
> Date: Sat, 28 Jul 2012 14:51:31 +0200
> 
> Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:
> 
> > > A third version: I see no artifacts, but also no nice alignment.  Looks
> > > like tab chars are formatted for me as spaces with constant width.  (I
> > > use emacs-snapshot on Debian.)
> >
> > Please state the toolkit that was used to build Emacs.  This issue is
> > definitely toolkit-dependent.
> 
> GNU Emacs 24.1.50.1 (i486-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.4.2)
>  of 2012-07-21 on keller, modified by Debian

Thanks.

If we care about this issue, we could perhaps expand TABs into the
appropriate number of spaces, before passing the menu items to the
toolkit.

bug#12067: 24.1; improper menu formatting with multiple \t chars

[Drew Adams]

> If we care about this issue, we could perhaps expand TABs into the
> appropriate number of spaces, before passing the menu items to the
> toolkit.

I thought of that, but menu items are often realized using proportional fonts.

What is really needed, I guess, is the equivalent of `move-to-column'.

bug#12067: 24.1; improper menu formatting with multiple \t chars

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: "Drew Adams" <drew.adams@oracle.com>
> Cc: <12067@debbugs.gnu.org>
> Date: Sat, 28 Jul 2012 13:10:50 -0700
> 
> > If we care about this issue, we could perhaps expand TABs into the
> > appropriate number of spaces, before passing the menu items to the
> > toolkit.
> 
> I thought of that, but menu items are often realized using proportional fonts.
> 
> What is really needed, I guess, is the equivalent of `move-to-column'.

move-to-column won't help, as it doesn't take pixel width of each
character into account.

bug#12067: 24.1; improper menu formatting with multiple \t chars

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

"Drew Adams" <drew.adams@oracle.com> writes:

> emacs -Q
>
> (defcustom foo [:ascii:]
>   "..."
>   :type
>   '(choice :tag "Foobar"
>     (const :tag "A\t\t- [:ascii:]"                                [:ascii:])
>     (const :tag "Bbbbbb\t\t- [:nonascii:]"                        [:nonascii:])
>     (const :tag "Cccccccccccc\t\t- [:word:]"                      [:word:])
>     (const :tag "Dddddddddddddddddddddddddd\t\t- [:alnum:]"       [:alnum:])
>     (const :tag "Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee\t- [:alpha:]" [:alpha:]))
>   :group 'convenience)
>
> M-x customize-option foo

The conclusion seems to be "tabs aren't really supported in menus".
Closing.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
  bloggy blog http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no/