Re: Tip: tty mode-line popup menus

[Gerd Möllmann]

Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:

>> From: Gerd Möllmann <gerd.moellmann@gmail.com>
>> Date: Mon, 09 Dec 2024 09:01:46 +0100
>> 
>> When clicking on, say, the major mode indicator in the mode-line
>> different things happen, depending on whether I'm using a GUI or tty
>> Emacs (-nw):
>> 
>> - GUI (NS In may case): a popup menu opens on down-mpuse-1 and stays
>>   open when I release the mouse button.
>> 
>> - Tty: a popup menu opens on down-mouse-1 and is closed as soon as I
>>   release the mouse button. If the mouse is over a menu item[B releasing
>>   the button also selects the menu item.
>
> Yes.  TTY menus behave like the no-toolkit build of Emacs behaves,
> because they share some of the code and the general design.
>
>> I don't like the tty behavior.
>
> You don't like it because you are used to how the various GUI toolkits
> behave: they leave the menu displayed when you release the mouse
> button.  But Emacs has always produced both kinds of behaviors,
> depending on the toolkit (or lack thereof).  The reason for popping
> down a menu on mouse release is that otherwise one needs a separate
> event loop (which toolkits have and TTY mouse doesn't).

Yes, I remember the times. I didn't like it then either, with a mouse
:-).

>
>> It is fiddly with a track pad, which I normally use, leading to
>> inadvertent menu selections. Furthermore, keyboard operation of the
>> menu seems impossible.
>
> ??? Of course, it possible: type F10, and then use arrow keys to
> navigate and RET to select.

Doesn't work for me.

Without doing the changes I posted, I down-mouse-1 on something in the
mode-line having a menu. When I release the mouse, the menu is gone, as
I described. When I press F10, keeping the mouse button pressed, the
menu also disappears.

With the changes applied, mouse-1 opens the menu, and I then can use
cursor keys, RET, and so on. No F10 needed.