Syslinux - Mar 2005 - Problems with menu.c32, and some feature request for menu.c32

I have found two bugs in the menu.c32 utility, part of the syslinux-3.08-pre5
build, and have a couple of requests.

Problem 1:

If you use the ^ symbol to define a number as a hotkey, ex. MENU LABEL ^1 Option
#1 , the menu will not print the number highlighted.  It will use it as a hot
key, it just will not highlight it.  It does highlight the hotkey if specify a
letter, A-Z.

Problem 2:

When the statement "MENU PASSWD" is used to define a password the
label that it is used in and all following labels require that password.  All
preceding LABELs do not require a password.

Request #1:
When a timeout is spedified it would be nice if a countdown timer could be place
on the screen, say the lower right hand corner.  This could be enabled/disabled
through a menu option.

Request #2:
It would be nice if the following vars in the menu.c could be set in the config
file so the program would not have to be recompiled to change these values.
#define WIDTH		80
#define MARGIN		10
#define PASSWD_MARGIN	3
#define MENU_ROWS	12
#define TABMSG_ROW	18
#define CMDLINE_ROW	20
#define END_ROW		24
#define PASSWD_ROW	11

Request #3:
Add an option to the config file that would enable HOTKEYING.  What is
hotkeying?  Currently when you press a hotkey the menu item is highlighted and
then you have to press enter to execute the menu item.  HOTKEYING would, when
the hotkey is pressed, highlight the menu item and automatically execute the
menu item.

On Mon, Mar 28, 2005 at 11:02:06AM -0500, Eugene Pressley top-quoted:
> Well in those three days I did identify and correct the problem
> with using a number (0-9) as the hot key.
> The following is the section of code in menu.c32 responsible
> for displaying the menu entries:
> 
> display_entry(const struct menu_entry *entry, const char *attrib,
> 	      const char *hotattrib, int width)
> {
>   const char *p = entry->displayname;
> 
>   while ( width ) {
>     if ( *p ) {
>       if ( *p == '^' ) {
> 	p++;
> /*	if ( *p && (unsigned char)*p == entry->hotkey ) { */
> 	  fputs(hotattrib, stdout);
> 	  putchar(*p++);
> 	  fputs(attrib, stdout);
> 	  width--;
> /*	} */
>       } else {
> 	putchar(*p++);
> 	width--;
>       }
>     } else {
>       putchar(' ');
>       width--;
>     }
>   }
> }
> 
> As you can see I have commented out two lines that compse an If statement.
> This was preventing numbers from being displayed as highlighted.
> With this mod, if you use a number as a hot key it is
> properly highlighted on the screen.
I'm not a "menu guy" and _surely not_ a "highlighting in boot
loader guy"
But hey, who am I?

Provide an unified diff  (output of `diff -u foobar.c.tarball foobar.c`)
to find out if your change is accepted ...
> Regarding the response from Problem #2:
<snip/>

> Regarding the response from Request #1:
> I understand the need to keep bloat down, but I am unclear how adding
> a visible display of a timer that is already a part of the code would
> add a significant amout of bloat to the code base.
My interrest in syslinux, infact extlinux,
is having a mean & lean bootloader.
My computer are bought to work. As less as possible down-time.
Quick booting is part of the high uptime.
And the computers have no video screen attached, only a serial console.
It is the cursor postitioning and highlighting code over a serial line
that I hate.
> 
> Regarding the response from Request #2:
<snip/>

> Regarding the response from Request #3
<snip/>

> I am in tinkering with the original source,
> as is evidenced by the possible resolution to problem #1,
<snip/>

No time to skip back and forward to the numbered items.

Inline quoting works fine.


Cheers
Geert Stappers