Re: Key bindings proposal

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

Juri Linkov writes:

 > Does XEmacs bind a key (or key sequences) to access the top-level
 > menu?  I mean something like <f10> or Alt-F (for File menu)?

Yes.  The actual behavior depends on two customizable variables.

`menu-accelerator-enabled'

  Whether menu accelerator keys can cause the menubar to become
  active.  If `menu-force' or `menu-fallback', then menu accelerator
  keys can be used to activate the top level menu.  Once the menubar
  becomes active, the accelerator keys can be used regardless of the
  value of this variable.

  menu-force is used to indicate that the menu accelerator key takes
  precedence over bindings in the current keymap(s).  menu-fallback
  means that bindings in the current keymap take precedence over menu
  accelerator keys.

  Thus a top level menu with an accelerator of "T" would be activated
  on a keypress of Meta-t if menu-accelerator-enabled is menu-force.
  However, if menu-accelerator-enabled is menu-fallback, then Meta-t
  will not activate the menubar and will instead run the function
  transpose-words, to which it is normally bound.

This variable is normally nil.  The other is

`mswindows-alt-by-itself-activates-menu'

  Controls whether pressing and releasing the Alt key activates the menubar.
  This applies only if no intervening key was pressed.  See also
  `menu-accelerator-enabled', which is probably the behavior you actually want.
  Default is t.

This is available only on MS Windows.