editing a menu entry

editing a menu entry

[Yoshinori K. Okuji]

I'd like to hear your opinion about editing a menu entry.

I'm now writing code for editing a menu entry. Unlike GRUB Legacy, I'd 
like to edit a menu entry directly using GRUB as a screen editor rather 
than going to a command-line and going back to the menu-like interface. 
Conceptually, the interface for menu entry editing will behave like a 
subset of GNU Emacs.

Then, there is a key bind problem. In GRUB Legacy, we use 'b' to boot an 
entry and use ENTER to edit a specified command. In GRUB 2, these must 
be used to insert the character 'b' and to insert a newline or split a 
command into two, respectively. Then, how to boot the entry? I don't 
know what the right way is. Using an unusual key (such as C-c)? Or, a 
combination of keys (such as C-x b)?

What do you think?

Okuji

Re: editing a menu entry

[Tobias Wollgam]

> I'd like to hear your opinion about editing a menu entry.
>
> I'm now writing code for editing a menu entry. Unlike GRUB Legacy,
> I'd like to edit a menu entry directly using GRUB as a screen editor
> rather than going to a command-line and going back to the menu-like
> interface. Conceptually, the interface for menu entry editing will
> behave like a subset of GNU Emacs.
>
> Then, there is a key bind problem. In GRUB Legacy, we use 'b' to boot
> an entry and use ENTER to edit a specified command. In GRUB 2, these
> must be used to insert the character 'b' and to insert a newline or
> split a command into two, respectively. Then, how to boot the entry?
> I don't know what the right way is. Using an unusual key (such as
> C-c)? Or, a combination of keys (such as C-x b)?
>
> What do you think?

I do not know which possibilities there are, but I don't like the key 
combination stuff. 

How is ALT-b?

Re: editing a menu entry

[Yoshinori K. Okuji]

On Tuesday 14 September 2004 16:27, Tobias Wollgam wrote:
> How is ALT-b?

Alt is difficult to use for GRUB. Control is better.

Okuji

Re: editing a menu entry

[Marco Gerards]

"Yoshinori K. Okuji" <okuji@enbug.org> writes:

> I'd like to hear your opinion about editing a menu entry.
>
> I'm now writing code for editing a menu entry. Unlike GRUB Legacy, I'd 
> like to edit a menu entry directly using GRUB as a screen editor rather 
> than going to a command-line and going back to the menu-like interface. 
> Conceptually, the interface for menu entry editing will behave like a 
> subset of GNU Emacs.

That is nice!  Have you thought about using tab completion here?

> Then, there is a key bind problem. In GRUB Legacy, we use 'b' to boot an 
> entry and use ENTER to edit a specified command. In GRUB 2, these must 
> be used to insert the character 'b' and to insert a newline or split a 
> command into two, respectively. Then, how to boot the entry? I don't 
> know what the right way is. Using an unusual key (such as C-c)? Or, a 
> combination of keys (such as C-x b)?

AFAIK emacs has combinations of keys because there are not enough keys
for every function.  I don't think GRUB will ever have this problem so
an unusual key would be the best IMHO.  It is easier for users and
easier to implement.

Thanks,
Marco

Re: editing a menu entry

[lode leroy]

>I'd like to hear your opinion about editing a menu entry.
>
>Then, how to boot the entry?

how about double-bucky B ?

seriously, could you put buttons on the screen, [save] [boot] [return]
so people could  navigate to the "[boot]" button, and press "enter"?

and for the advanced users, ctrl-enter ?

-- lode

_________________________________________________________________
Xbox: now only € 149,99! http://www.xbox.com/nl-BE

Re: editing a menu entry

[Yoshinori K. Okuji]

On Tuesday 14 September 2004 18:09, Marco Gerards wrote:
> That is nice!  Have you thought about using tab completion here?

Not yet completely. Probably we will want to have a common completion 
routine shared by menu editing and command-line handling. In the menu 
interface, I think we can use some different ways to show candidates 
potentially:

1. Show a list of available things (devices/files/commands) at the 
bottom of the screen (out of the menu box).

2. Split the menu box temporarily and show a list.

3. Overwrite a list on the menu box with the colors flipped (white 
background and black foreground) temporarily.

I think 1 and 3 are zsh-like, and 1 and 2 are Emacs-like. 1 is the 
easiest to implement, but it can show very few candidates at a time.

> AFAIK emacs has combinations of keys because there are not enough
> keys for every function.  I don't think GRUB will ever have this
> problem so an unusual key would be the best IMHO.  It is easier for
> users and easier to implement.

Actually, we need a key to enter the command-line interface as well as 
one to boot. So maybe C-c for a command-line and C-x for booting. I 
don't want to use C-z, C-w or C-q, because the positions are different 
between QWERTY and AZERTY.

Okuji