[507] in linux-announce channel archive
guest: a menuing system for the common man
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Lars Wirzenius)
Fri May 5 12:49:29 1995
Date: Fri, 5 May 1995 16:48:47 +0300
From: Lars Wirzenius <wirzeniu@cc.helsinki.fi>
To: linux-activists@niksula.hut.fi, linux-announce@vger.rutgers.edu
X-Mn-Key: announce
From: Bobby Shmit <shmit@meathook.intac.com>
Subject: guest: a menuing system for the common man
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.announce
Keywords: menu, guest
Organization: ?
Approved: linux-announce@news.ornl.gov (Lars Wirzenius)
Followup-to: comp.os.linux.development.apps
References:
>From the README:
NOTE: I don't like the name `guest', but I have been unable to come up with
anything else. Any takers? Also, the version number (0.1) is low because I
have been the only person to test it, not because it's very buggy; as I get
feedback the number is likely to be bumped up.
What is `guest'?
Guest is a Unix/ncurses menu interface. I originally wrote
it when I tried to make a shell script to add some security to my
guest account. I found that shell scripts are completely impossible to
write in a decent way and just plain ugly to look at. So I had my hand
at writing my own. Besides, I wanted to try out my gnu-ELF build
environment on something other than one module programs.
How do I write menus?
Guest menus are very simple to write and read. They are laid out in a
very logical way much like the menus to `fvwm' (1.xx anyway).
Unfortunately, at this point the parser is a bit crude and is a
stickler for things like case, but it has nice verbose output so you
can trace down the problem in the menu file really easily.
A menu starts with the word `Menu' followed by the menu name (not the
title), and ends with the word `EndMenu'. Each menu consists of a
variety of tokens and there respective arguments, tokens and arguments
are split by the character `:'. At this point there is no escape
character, so you cannot use `:' in menu text. Every token has at
least one argument, which is what will appear on the screen.
The tokens currently recognized by guest are as follows:
* `Title': denotes the title of the menu (you can have as many
as you like).
Title:Main Menu:
* `Exec': denotes an executable item and has two arguments,
the second is the command line to execute.
Exec:Read Mail:pine:
* `SubMenu': denotes a link to another menu and has two
arguments, the second is the name of the Menu to link to.
SubMenu:File Utilities:File-Util:
* `Exit': quits the current menu, if the current menu is the
first menu, you will be logged out.
Exit:Logout:
* `Nop': is for comments
Nop:This is a comment:
HOW TO GET HELP:
Send all patches/advice/questions/flames to
`shmit@meathook.intac.com' I hope you find this software useful, and
please: hack away at the code, add new screen modules, take some items
off the TODO list. The only thing I ask is that you send me patches
(with comments) when you have done something.
Or just talk to a good shrink.
lsm entry follows:
Begin3
Title: guest
Version: 0.1
Entered-date: Apr 26, 1995
Description: A text menuing system with fvwm-1.xx like syntax
Keywords: menu, guest
Author: shmit@meathook.intac.com (Brian Cully)
Primary-site: sunsite.unc.edu /pub/Linux/system/Shells
20kB guest-0.1.tar.gz
Alternate-site: fandora.resnet.cornell.edu /pub/Brian
Platform: ncurses-1.9 or greater
Copying-policy: GPL
End
+--------------------------+---------------------------------------------------
| shmit@meathook.intac.com | #include <sigs/416-atogs-ask.for.info.h>
+--------------------------+ #include <sigs/witty.h>
| Robert J. Shmit | #include <sigs/insightful.h>
+--------------------------+---------------------------------------------------
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