Re: lispref/frames.texi and xmenu.c

[Jan D.]

Luc Teirlinck wrote:

> I propose the changes below to lispref/frames.texi and xmenu.texi.
> They concern x-popup-{menu,dialog}.  I can install if desired.
>
> I am not sure whether we should document (which the patches below do)
> or fix one difference between `x-popup-dialog' and `x-popup-menu'.
> When the user quits or pops down the menu, `x-popup-menu' just returns
> nil, while `x-popup-dialog' actually quits and returns no value.  If I
> remember correctly, the latter behavior is relatively recent and was
> the result of a discussion on emacs-devel.  That behavior was
> implemented because we did not want to have popping down the dialog or
> quitting automatically invoke the action associated with answering
> "n(o)" to a y(es)-or-n(o)-p question.  I still believe that this
> change made sense.  The question is whether for consistency, a similar
> change should be made for `x-popup-menu'.  (Maybe this is too close to
> a release for such a change, but then again, we changed `x-popup-dialog')
> As already said, the patches below just document the difference.
>  

I think making x-popup-dialog and x-popup-menu should be made to behave 
the same.  However, since menus are used more in Emacs than dialogs, 
there is a bigger risk involved.

> However, from :
>
>     In some configurations, Emacs cannot display a real dialog box;
>     so instead it displays the same items in a pop-up menu in the
>     center of the frame.
>
> I can not check, but does quitting or popping down that popup-menu
> when `x-popup-dialog' is used in this situation quit or return nil?
>  

Quit.  But it does that by checking if the menu was invoked with the 
mouse.  If it was invoked by the mouse, we return nil, otherwise we 
quit.  So if a menu is popped up programatically by x-popup-menu, it 
will also quit even if it is not popped up as a dialog. This makes me 
wonder if there is code that expects nil from menus, since the code 
tries to keep that distinction.

   Jan D.