Re: [ jEdit-users ] Mode-specific menus

[Erik H. <eh...@ne...>]

"Slava Pestov" <sp...@gj...> wrote:
> I have an idea I might implement in jEdit 3.1 -- mode-specific plugin
menus.
> Right now, all plugins are simply batched in a 'Plugins' menu.
>
> How about, only displaying 'global' plugins (eg, Plugin Manager, JDiff,
> Console) in the 'Plugins' menu, and only displaying plugins tied to a
> specific mode in a menu with that mode's name, only when a buffer with
> that mode is being edited?
>
> Eg, in HTML mode, the HTML plugin might add 'Tags' and 'Tidy' submenus
> to the mode-specific menu; the former would contain the prev/next tag,
> etc commands, the latter would contain JTidy stuff.
>
> I haven't thought up of a good API for this yet, though. Any suggestions?
> Is this a good idea at all?

Why have a "Plugins" or "Mode" menu at all? Perhaps the plugin menu items
can just go into various places in the regular menu.

For example, "Buffer Tabs" could go into the "View" menu. "Check jEdit
Version" could go in the "Help" menu. It's easier to remember to look for
"Check jEdit Version" in the "Help" menu than in the "Plugins" menu, unless
you remember that feature was created by a plugin.

A possible implementation (I haven't looked at the jEdit code yet, BTW):
there could be a menus.xml file which describes all the menus and menu
items that could possibly exist. A menu item could either belong to
jEdit-core or could belong to a plugin. If that plugin isn't installed,
then the menu item isn't visible. If a menu is made up completely of
plugin-defined items, and none of those plugins are installed, then the
entire menu will not show up. When a new plugin is added to Plugin Central,
menus.xml gets updated by the development team and downloaded by the user
as part of the plugin installation process. If a plugin defines a menu item
that isn't in menus.xml, perhaps the item could show up in the "Plugins"
menu (this would be good for developing new plugins before menus.xml is
updated).

Also, perhaps the plugin manager could have a window that shows the user wh
ich menu items are associated with each plugin, in case a user can't figure
out how to access the plugin.


That's just one possible implementation; there are probably better ones.

Erik