Re: New Context Menu

[Ergus]

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.