[bongo-devel] Re: I want to make `f' and `b' move point

[Daniel Jensen]

Daniel Brockman <address@hidden> writes:

> address@hidden (Daniel Jensen) writes:
>
>> Daniel Brockman <address@hidden> writes:
>>
>>> Can't we just say `fuck it!' or `rock'n'roll!' or something
>>> and bind <mouse-3> to a context menu?
>
> [For the record, I done did that a couple of weeks ago.]

Yes, I haven't really tried it out. I don't care for it, but I'm not
opposing it. I don't mind discussing the details.

>>> I sometimes use the region-selecting/killing binding of
>>> <mouse-3>, but I don't think anyone will miss it much in
>>> Bongo buffers.

By the way, this might be because it wasn't fully integrated.

>> Preview-latex only does it on images, so it's not really a
>> context menu.
>
> How is that not a context menu?  The context is the image.

I meant that it's not a menu that changes depending on context. It's
just a menu, not a consistent user interface. So I wouldn't call it a
context menu. Well, that's my definition anyway.

I think you're halfway (or more) to a context menu in Bongo. There are
different menus for header lines and track lines. So why not a menu for
the areas that are not object lines? That could be the main mode menu,
for example.

>> SLIME also has a menu on "presentations", those are printed
>> representations of objects that you can inspect or copy in the REPL.
>> But again, you get the standard `mouse-save-then-kill' on text.
>
> Well, aren't the "presentations" text?

Sort of, kind of, yes, but no. This is a digression, really. The point
of presentations is to present types of objects to the user, for direct
manipulation. You don't think of it as text, it is the very object right
there. So instead of having to use `*' and friends in the REPL (they are
variables bound to recent values, in case you didn't know), you click
the presentation.

SLIME is of course limited to using only text for this, since it's
nothing more than a glorified comint mode, but on the Lisp machines (and
also in the Common Lisp Interface Manager, the heir to the Lisp machine
GUI system) it was a general construct for programs to use and build
user interfaces.

Anyway. I'm wondering how you look at object lines in Bongo buffers.
They are both text and presentations, in a way. (They could be more like
presentations some day, if the track objects you've been talking about
come to life.) This also concerns the mapping of Bongo to text editing
ideas, as you mentioned. It's a little confusing, don't you think, like
the duality of light? Well, this is getting a little too abstract.

> I guess we could put the context menus only on the icons.
>
> What do you think about that?

I don't know. That sounds like a bad compromise. I think that if you
really want the menu, it's a shame to hide it away like that.