Re: New Context Menu

[Ergus <spacibba@aol.com>]

On Wed, Aug 18, 2021 at 04:30:37PM +0300, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
>> Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2021 14:43:09 +0200
>> From: Ergus <spacibba@aol.com>
>> Cc: juri@linkov.net, emacs-devel@gnu.org
>>
>> >> Maybe this is ask for too much, but I am wondering that once the context
>> >> menu will be released with emacs 28, then a lot of packages will try to
>> >> implement such a functionality in a hacky way with advises/hooks and so
>> >> on and they won't get properly maintained.
>> >
>> >I don't see how this can be worked around in a hook, because TTY menus
>> >are implemented entirely in C.
>> >
>> Users and external developers may try their best it this annoys them
>> enough.
>
>Yes, but there are limits to that.  Like the speed of light, for
>example.
>
>> >> In case the user wants to bind the context menu without using the mouse
>> >> how can be done? Will the context-menu appear in the current cursor
>> >> (point) or in the current mouse arrow position?
>> >
>> >We could do something similar to what we do when the user presses F10
>> >on a TTY frame.
>> >
>> On tty the F10 menu opens in the minibuffer.
>
>??? It does not!  I just tried.  Are you trying in "emacs -Q"?
>
>> It would be better if we can just show the same menu than with the
>> mouse instead
>
>That's what F10 is supposed to do.

Ahh sorry, I tried that from a real TTY ;). Now I get your point. Yes,
that's what I want.
>
>> because it appears in place, closer to where the user is editing.
>
>If you want the menu to be dropped close to point, you need to tell
>the menu code where that is, it by default expects to get that from
>the event which triggered it, and that only works with mouse clicks,
>not with keyboard keys.  In the implementation of F10, we use some
>trick to do something similar, but since that opens the menu-bar menu,
>the location of point is not very relevant, so we use something else.
>

Passing the point location shouldn't be too hard; maybe it only requires
an extra condition when the "event" is not a "mouse event" use the point
location. On tty some time ago that was an issue because the menu used
to open always in the middle... but now it is fixed.

>> >> I know the context menu without mouse is a bit pointless
>> >
>> >Why pointless? menus work on TTY frames without a mouse just fine, you
>> >can move and select using the keyboard.
>> >
>> But context menu it more mouse-oriented in general because it is a need
>> specially for more mouse oriented users. Why to do something like F10 +
>> arrow + arrow + Enter: when you can do just M-w?
>
>Because menus are self-explanatory, whereas M-w requires that you
>remember it?
>
>> Or why to use arrows if just used the mouse to activate the menu?
>
>Because you don't have a mouse to begin with? or because you don't
>want to move your fingers from the keyboard?  The usual reasons, IOW.
>