echo area message after selection of menu-bar item

echo area message after selection of menu-bar item

[David Reitter]

After I select a menu-item, the path through the keymaps leading to  
that item is shown in the echo area, for example "menu-bar options  
highlight-paren-mode". That's rather uninformative to me as a user  
and I'd like to turn it off. I haven't been able to find an option or  
even the place in the code that shows me this output.

How do I turn it off?
Or, where in the code is the output made?

Thanks for any answer!

RE: echo area message after selection of menu-bar item

[Drew Adams]

    After I select a menu-item, the path through the keymaps leading to
    that item is shown in the echo area, for example "menu-bar options
    highlight-paren-mode". That's rather uninformative to me as a user
    and I'd like to turn it off. I haven't been able to find an option or
    even the place in the code that shows me this output.

    How do I turn it off?
    Or, where in the code is the output made?

    Thanks for any answer!

Does binding (or customizing) `echo-keystrokes' to nil help? That will turn
off echoing for more than just menu key sequences, however.

Re: echo area message after selection of menu-bar item

[Katsumi Yamaoka]

>>>>> In <mailman.20062.1135180909.20277.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
>>>>>	David Reitter wrote:

> After I select a menu-item, the path through the keymaps leading to
> that item is shown in the echo area, for example "menu-bar options
> highlight-paren-mode". That's rather uninformative to me as a user
> and I'd like to turn it off. I haven't been able to find an option or
> even the place in the code that shows me this output.

> How do I turn it off?
> Or, where in the code is the output made?

It may perhaps be the show-help-function variable, though it
defaults to tooltip-show-help-function or tooltip-show-help
which won't echo such a message.  Does this help?

(setq show-help-function 'ignore)

Re: echo area message after selection of menu-bar item

[David Reitter]

> t may perhaps be the show-help-function variable, though it
> defaults to tooltip-show-help-function or tooltip-show-help
> which won't echo such a message.  Does this help?

Nope, doesn't make a difference.

But Drew's suggestion to bind `echo-keystrokes' to nil helps.

Interestingly, the following menu item shows the problematic echo  
message. When I bind  `echo-keystrokes' to nil, I get the "One-Buffer- 
One-Frame-Mode dis/enabled" message which is output by what menu-bar- 
make-mm-toggle produces. So it seems like the keystroke echo message  
even overwrites the previous (much better) message.
The menu item I'm talking about is defined like this:

(define-key-after menu-bar-options-menu [oneonone]
       (menu-bar-make-mm-toggle
        one-buffer-one-frame-mode
        "Display Buffers in Separate Frames"
        "Open a new Frame (window) for each new buffer."
        (:visible (boundp 'one-buffer-one-frame-mode)))
        'edit-options-separator)

Other entries, e.g., save-place, behave differently. Here, the "en/ 
disabled" message appears after the keystrokes echo. This one is  
defined with `menu-bar-make-toggle' (in menu-bar.el) rather than with  
the minor-mode version.

Note that the minibuffer must be empty to reproduce this (see use of  
Vecho_keystrokes in the code).
Of course, the echo-keystrokes solution can't be the final word for me.

Echo-keystrokes is meant to be for unfinished keyboard commands. The  
menu item selection is a finished command, however.
Does it behave like this in other ports (I'm a Mac guy) as well?  
Sounds almost like a bug in either the Carbon port or even in the  
general implementation.