Re: [Suggestion] LILO-like direct menu item access && scripting

[Marc-Jano Knopp]

On Wed, 09 Feb 2005 at 11:21 (+0100), Serbinenko Vladimir wrote:
> Marc-Jano Knopp wrote:
> >On Tue, 08 Feb 2005 at 21:48 (+0000), Marco Gerards wrote:
> >>Marc-Jano Knopp <address@hidden> writes:
> >>>On Mon, 07 Feb 2005 at 17:33 (+0000), Marco Gerards wrote:
[...]
> >In GRUB, one should be able to move the selection bar absolutely
> >to a specific menu item by means of hotkeys (or "hotstrings").
> >
> >I propose to have the single-letter command 's' (I hope it's not
> >bound yet) for choosing a specific menu item by hotkey.
> >
> >Usage:
> >
> > 1. Hit 's'
> >
> I would prefer that all keys with special meaning will be
> C-something (with ctrl). And then all normal keys will be
> for choice only. So there is no need for 's'

That would be an alternative. But you cannot use 'k'/'j' for
moving the selection bar up/down then, which would be nice to do,
as a lot of programs use these vi bindings, and one can get really
used to it. But I could live with it, as long as all key bindings
are remappable. :-)


[...]
> >>>>But it would be nice, IMHO, if it was clear which entry has which
> >>>>hotkey.  Perhaps the title can be followed by the key in some
> >>>>different color or so?
> >>>>       
> >>>>
> >>>Hmm... I think the other way round would be nicer, as that's the
> >>>usual way to do it (and everything is naturally aligned nicely then).
> >>>(I think in LILO menus the order is the same, i.e. first letters, then
> >>>name of the menu item).
[...]
> >My (and LILO's (and Carlito's)) way:
> >
> > hotkey1 menuitemtitle1
> > hotkey2 menuitemtitle2
> > hotkey3 menuitemtitle3
> >
> Have you read about current GRUB2 menu syntax?
> I think the best syntax will be:
> entry "SuSE Linux" sequence="suse"
> {
>    ....
> }

Misunderstanding: He talked about the display of the menu and its keys,
not about configuring the keys. The syntax above looks okay to me.


> Other thing that I would like to discuss is how to clear entered string.
> E.g. if I entered "win32" but then I thought that it must die and want 
> linux.
> How can I clear it fast without using backspace to enter "mdk"

Ctrl-U? (Or Ctrl-A, Ctrl-K)
Or Escape?


> >I guess a run-time-interpreted format string for menu item formatting
> >would be best.
> >
> I'll write syntax interpreting and perhaps whole thing because menu 
> parsing is
> integrated with scripting and nobody knows it better then me

Okay.


> P.S. What is your opinion about scripting(till now I've heard no comments)?

I cannot really comment on it, because I'm not so deeply involved in
development (i.e. not at all :-}. In general I can say: give the user
maximum power. So, scripting sounds like a good idea to me.

(Btw.: What's "GCS"? Couldn't find anything in the GRUB docs.)


Best regards

  Marc-Jano