Re: Patching the menu manager

[vandry@CAM.ORG (Phillip Vandry)]

nagendra@csa.bu.edu (nagendra mishr) writes:

>What's wrong with option 1?  Just do a hide-cursor so that your cursor
>is not visible.  Move it around all you want...  select things.  ShowCursor

>Besides, I think that having the cursor visible may cause problems
>with the menu code: (I think it's safe to assume that the menu manager
>is assuming that the cursor will be what is causing the picking to
>happen and so it check's it location)

>ex:
>	Assume you're navigating with the arrow keys and the mouse
>cursor is visible:

>	let's say right under the menu, the menu somehow opens, the
>cursor moves (accidently) --> takes a snapshot of screen under cursor,
>the menu is closed, the cursormoves again --> the old snapshot is
>placed on the screen ...  You're gonna have a ghost image of the menu
>left on the desktop.  Sort of like how Showpic screws up the screen
>while it is decoding pictures.

Well, I don't think that would happen. QuickDraw II is smart enough not to
smear up the screen with the cursor if QD calls are used to draw and erase the
menu.

But, elaborating on your suggestion, I would need to know a few things first.
I read up on how the event manager treats custom pointing devices, and it is
indeed very well done.

But I also noticed that, when using a custom pointing device, you never
actually tell the event manager "Okay, I'm using my custom routine now" and
"Okay, I'm disabling my deivce. Put the mouse back in".

There must be a way so that the event manager knows when to abandon the mouse
in favor of the alternate device.... Unless they are both active at the same
time, which would be very chaotic.

And do the mouse routines in the Misc Tool set automatically use whatever
custom pointing device the event manager is using? If not I'm not sure this
would work for custom menus.

Of course rewriting MenuKey and calling the DefProcs myself would be the best
solution, but I guess it seems pretty impossible.

Finally, assuming I get this thing working, what do you think would be the best
way to handle conflicts (eg OA-S for Save and OA-S to open "Special" menu).
Use the option key instead? Control?

*Phew*
 ______________________________________________________________________
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| Phillip Vandry | Vandry@Cam.Org | Merry Christmas II you!            |
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>******* better yet  ********************

>make a new device driver which responds to key events, and fakes the
>mouse around the screen whenever you hit option or command or
>whatever.

>****************


>Nagendra

>Nagendra@csa.bu.edu