Support routines for popup menus

Support routines for popup menus

[Lennart Borgman (gmail)]

I just noticed that a library in Emacs opened a popup menu in such a way 
that the line it should give information about was hided. I think I have 
forgotten to send the two routines below which simplifies poping up 
menus alined to the point. Could they (or something similar) please be 
added to Emacs?

(defun point-to-coord (point)
   "Return coordinates of point in selected window.
The coordinates are in the form \(\(XOFFSET YOFFSET) WINDOW)."
   (let* ((pn (posn-at-point point))
          (x-y (posn-x-y pn))
          (x (car x-y))
          (y (cdr x-y))
          (pos (list (list x (+ y 20)) (selected-window))))
     pos))

(defun popup-menu-at-point (menu &optional prefix)
   "Popup the given menu at point.
This is similar to `popup-menu' and MENU and PREFIX has the same
meaning as there.  The position for the popup is however where
the window point is."
   (let ((where (point-to-coord (point))))
     (popup-menu menu where prefix)))

Re: Support routines for popup menus

[Richard Stallman]

    I just noticed that a library in Emacs opened a popup menu in such a way 
    that the line it should give information about was hided. I think I have 
    forgotten to send the two routines below which simplifies poping up 
    menus alined to the point.

What's the goal?  Just to move the menu vertically down a line or two?

Re: Support routines for popup menus

[Lennart Borgman (gmail)]

Richard Stallman wrote:
>     I just noticed that a library in Emacs opened a popup menu in such a way 
>     that the line it should give information about was hided. I think I have 
>     forgotten to send the two routines below which simplifies poping up 
>     menus alined to the point.
> 
> What's the goal?  Just to move the menu vertically down a line or two?

To show the menu where point is, not where the mouse cursor is. It 
displays the menu under the point with point visible, if possible. (If 
the menu has to be displayed upwards it, then it unfortunately covers 
point. This is a minor bug, of course. I think it is not easy to correct.)

Re: Support routines for popup menus

[Richard Stallman]

    To show the menu where point is, not where the mouse cursor is. It 
    displays the menu under the point with point visible, if possible. (If 

I expect people will find that very strange and inconvenient.

Re: Support routines for popup menus

[Lennart Borgman (gmail)]

Richard Stallman wrote:
>     To show the menu where point is, not where the mouse cursor is. It 
>     displays the menu under the point with point visible, if possible. (If 
> 
> I expect people will find that very strange and inconvenient.

I guess you are misunderstanding. The purpose is not to show the popup 
menu at the point when clicking with the mouse.

I thinks computer users today are used to menus that popup at the point 
for operations that has something to do with the text at point - even 
when they work with the keyboard. I have for example used this for 
completion in nXhtml:

   http://ourcomments.org/Emacs/nXhtml/doc/nxhtml.html#completion

I think there are other Emacs libraries that does similar things.

Re: Support routines for popup menus

[Lennart Borgman (gmail)]

Richard Stallman wrote:
>     To show the menu where point is, not where the mouse cursor is. It 
>     displays the menu under the point with point visible, if possible. (If 
> 
> I expect people will find that very strange and inconvenient.

Could you please reread what I wrote about this? I think you have 
misunderstod the intention.

Popping up menus the way I suggest here while working from the keyboard 
is quite common. Most often it is tied to the [apps] key.

BTW I have proposed a framework for using the [apps] key (so that 
different modes etc can cooperate on the use of it) but have not have 
time to clean that file up and send it to the list.

Re: Support routines for popup menus

[Richard Stallman]

    Popping up menus the way I suggest here while working from the keyboard 
    is quite common. Most often it is tied to the [apps] key.

I agree, it does make sense when using a keyboard command.
I was thinking of the mouse.