[keymaps, chaining in DrScheme]
Hmm, I read the urls given, but having no experience with it, and it
being a little sparse, I'm not sure I understood what I was reading, and
definitely didn't get a sense of what it's like to use. Can you explain
this a little?

[menus are already extensible and rearrangable]
What do you mean? that they can be extended in runtime? I know, that's
what the RB does, for example. The current inflexibility I am talking
about comes from the way they are generated and used - this needs to
already have a place where applications can register extra action,
without modifying image code. Dynamic menus do this in a very specific
way for one menu, the question, in my mind, is how to generalize it
properly to the many menus that should be dynamically extendible...

Daniel

Bijan Parsia <bparsia at email.unc.edu> wrote:
> On Mon, 14 Jul 2003, Daniel Vainsencher wrote:
> 
> [snip]
> > Now Roel is working on a notification service that generates events when
> > code changes happen, so that applications interested in these events can
> > be added without mucking around the compiler and friends.
> 
> This is great. One challege, I'd imagine, is to do all this without
> mucking with possible user arrangements.
> 
> > I thought I'd ask for other people to mention what other hooks they
> > think are needed, and mention some ideas I've seen floating around here
> > and there.
> >
> > 1. Keyboard shortcuts - these should be configurable by the user, but
> > should also be extendible by applications. For example, if someone comes
> > up with a local dictionary package, he should be able to expose that
> > function as a keyboard shortcut in text panes.
> 
> I'm fond of the idea, though not the execution of MrEd's keymaps:
> 
> http://www.cs.huji.ac.il/support/docs/drscheme/toolbox/node1398.htm#classwxkeymap
> 
> Especially chaining:
> http://www.cs.huji.ac.il/support/docs/drscheme/toolbox/node1403.htm#methodwxkeymapchaintokeymap
> 
> I generally like the idea of overlays of event handlers.
> 
> > 2. Menus in general - I think adding new registries for every menu that
> > needs it is lame. We should design a system that allows any application
> > to add to any (or almost any) menu dynamically. I think EMACS is
> > supposed to do something like this, though I'm not familiar with the
> > design.
> 
> Just reiterate that there are hefty UI issues here, especially in the
> presense of arbitrary user (or application!) modification.
> 
> menus are already extensible and rearrageable, I think. The question is
> more on conventions and best practices.
> 
> [snip]
> 
> Great thought, btw.
> 
> Cheers,
> Bijan Parsia.