[Chicago-talk] Help hacking some code.

[Richard Reina]

Hi Shlomi,

Thank you very much for you reply.  I did not write this code, it was instead written by the modules author Steve Kunz a long time ago.  I do not consider myself capable of rewriting his module and has demonstrated robust stability over the years I have little reason to. However, I am grateful nevertheless for the suggestions and I will look into the suggestion about substituting ANSI Color. 

Thank you,

Richard


---- Chicago.pm chatter <chicago-talk at pm.org> wrote:
>
> Hi!
> 
> See below for my response.
> 
> On Friday 02 Oct 2009 14:50:53 Richard Reina wrote:
> > For a number of years I have been using Steve Kunz perlmenu.pm as a nice
> >  low overhead GUI for a database app.  I am very happy with it.  However, I
> >  am try to dig deep into its code to solve a mystery. I have written the
> >  author and have not heard back so I was hoping that perhaps someone here
> >  might lend some advice. The code below provides a basic menu and I am
> >  trying to add color by placing
> > 
> > use Term::ANSIColor;
> > print color 'bold blue';
> 
> I don't think Term::ANSIColor works well with Curses.pm. You should try:
> 
> http://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=32154
> 
> (first hit for http://www.google.com/search?q=curses%20perl%20color )
> 
> Other than that, I should note that the module you are using seems to be coded 
> quite amateurishly. Let me go over that: 
> 
> > 
> > in different parts of the code in order to try an add color. No matter
> >  where I seem to place it, no color is displayed. I have even tried placing
> >  it in the menu_display subroutine -- which is called in the code -- in
> >  perlmenu.pm.  Please find that subroutine further down.  All of the code
> >  in perlmenu.pm is posted here
> >  http://kobesearch.cpan.org/htdocs/perlmenu/perlmenu.pm.html
> 
> non-Pragma modules should start with an uppercase letter - PerlMenu.pm or 
> Perlmenu.pm or whatever. And it should be under a more meaningful namespace 
> than the top-level one.
> 
> > 
> > For several days I have been searching -- to no avail -- for some kind of
> >  system("reset") in the code that would blow away color.  Is this something
> >  that Curses is canceling out?  From what I understand perl Curses does
> >  support color, so I am confused about what is preventing this from
> >  working.  Does anyone have any ideas as to how I can go about achieving
> >  this task?
> > 
> > Any help would be greatly appreciated and if there are any MLB fans
> >  listening I will gladly donate my 4 seats down the third base line for
> >  today's 1:20 game against the Arizona Diamondbacks in exchange for help
> >  solving this problem.
> > 
> > BEGIN { $Curses::OldCurses = 1; }
> > use Curses;
> > use perlmenu;
> > ...
> > &menu_init(1,"Select an Animal"); # Init menu
> 
> You shouldn't use &menu_init(...) with an ampersand - use menu_init(...) 
> instead.
> 
> > 
> > &menu_item("Collie","dog"); # Add item
> > &menu_item("Shetland","pony"); # Add item
> > &menu_item("Persian","cat"); # Add last item
> > 
> > $sel = &menu_display("Which animal?"); # Get user selection
> > 
> > if ($sel eq "%UP%") { ... }
> > if ($sel eq "dog") { ... }
> 
> Maybe use a dispatch table here.
> 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > #**********
> > #  MENU_DISPLAY
> > #
> > #  Function:	Display items in menu_sel_text array, allow selection, and
> > #		return appropriate selection-string.
> > #
> > #  Call format:	$sel = &menu_display("Prompt text",$arrow_line,$top_item);
> > #
> > #  Arguments:   - Prompt text (for the bottom line of menu).
> > #		- Line number offset for the arrow (defaults to zero).
> > #		- Index of top item on screen (defaults to zero).
> > #		- Column number offset for the arrow (multiple-column mode
> > #		  only, defaults to zero).
> > #
> > #  Returns:     Selected action string (from second param on &menu_item)
> > #		%UP%    -- "u"|"U" pressed (or "t"|"T" and looking for top)
> > #               %EMPTY% -- Nothing in menu to display
> > #
> > #  Notes:	1) This routine ALWAYS sets "nocbreak" and "echo" terminal
> > #		   modes before returning.
> > #		2) This routine exits directly (after calling the optional
> > #		   "quit" routine) if "q"|"Q" is pressed.
> > #**********
> > sub menu_display {
> >   ($menu_prompt,$arrow_spec_row,$menu_top_item,$arrow_spec_col) = @_;
> 
> You should use my for these variables them. And use strict and use warnings
> 
> >   local($ret);
> 
> Why are you using local?
> 
> > 
> > # Check for no "menu_item" calls.
> >   $total_items = $#menu_sel_text + 1;
> 
> $total_items should be declared.
> 
> >   if ($total_items <= 0) {
> >     &nocbreak();		# ALWAYS turn off "cbreak" mode
> >     &echo();		# ALWAYS turn on "echo"
> >     return("%EMPTY%");
> >   }
> > 
> >   &clear(); $xrow = $xcol = 0;
> 
> Don't put them both on the same line.
> 
> >   $last_menu_top_item = -1;	# Force drawing of menu items
> >   $ret = &menu_display_internal(0,$menu_prompt,0);
> >   if ($#_ > 0) { $_[1] = $arrow_spec_row; }
> 
> Why are you accessing @_ directly using $#_ like that?
> 
> >   if ($#_ > 1) { $_[2] = $menu_top_item; }
> >   if ($#_ > 2) { $_[3] = $arrow_spec_col; }
> >   &menu_return_prep();
> >   $ret;
> 
> You should separate logical paragraphs of your code using empty lines.
> 
> And << $ret; >> should be << return $ret; >>.
> 
> For more information, consult:
> 
> http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596001735
> 
> Regards,
> 
> 	Shlomi Fish
> 
> 
> -- 
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> Shlomi Fish       http://www.shlomifish.org/
> Best Introductory Programming Language - http://shlom.in/intro-lang
> 
> Chuck Norris read the entire English Wikipedia in 24 hours. Twice.
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