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Re: menu-bar


  From: "William M. York" <york@parc.xerox.com>
  Date: 	Thu, 5 May 1994 15:40:08 PDT

     Date:	Wed, 4 May 1994 17:32:33 -0700
     From:	Colin Meldrum <colin@franz.com>
     Cc:	Myriam Abramson x7815 <abramson@verdi.sra.com>, clim@bbn.com

     In Allegro CLIM 2.0 you can use the pane abbreviation :MENU-BAR (as opposed
     to :COMMAND-MENU which will get you old CLIM 1 style menus) rather than
     having to explicitly create the pane eg

  So, what are the odds on vendor-specific extensions like this getting
  re-integrated into all the CLIM implementations?  Did the design of
  this take into account how it might be realized on other platforms?
  Is an extension like this considered to be of enough value to require
  licensing arrangements with the other vendors, or can it get shared
  pretty easily?

The code is trivial...

(define-pane-type :menu-bar (&rest options &key command-table)
  (declare (non-dynamic-extent options))
  (with-keywords-removed (options options '(:command-table))
    `(make-pane 'menu-bar 
		,@options
		:command-table ,(or command-table
				    `(frame-command-table frame)))))

...although this does assume the existence of a MENU-BAR pane class which
in itself is an extension. At least I could find no reference to it in the
CLIM 2.0 specification. But perhaps most CLIM 2 implementations do have
such a pane class and the extension would be equally trivial. On the other
hand perhaps they don't. The ease of realization of this extension by other
vendors is not really the issue here. No-one has yet proposed that this
become part of the spec. 

I was merely pointing out that users of Allegro CLIM do not need to 
explicitly call MAKE-PANE in this particular instance. I should have
added that they should be aware that in doing so (or for that matter in
using menu-bar panes at all) they may render their code non-portable.

  Of course, I don't have to tell you where I stand on these issues, but
  I thought that I'd raise the point as a way of publicly checking the
  state of things.  I think everyone loses in the long run when
  individual vendors extend outside the spec, even when those extensions
  are good ideas in and of themselves.

-----
Colin Meldrum, Franz Inc.	1995 University Avenue, Suite 275         
colin@Franz.COM (internet)	Berkeley, CA 94704                       
uunet!franz!colin (uucp)	Phone: (510) 548-3600; FAX: (510) 548-8253
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