Suggestion for v3 - Menu

[Guy]

I like the way Tiny Core is going. Keep up the good work.

I have a suggestion for future releases.

With the present system, the user needs to run OnDemand, to create an On Demand menu. Then use the On Demand menu the first time a program is started, and the regular menu if the program is started again.

Here is a suggestion.

Put menu items in separate files, not in the extensions. You could name them anything, but it could be program-name.menu.

Have all menu items load from /tce/optional when the computer starts, even if the extension is not loaded.

Make each menu file a script, so when a menu item is clicked, if there is not a link for that program in the tce directory, it will run the On Demand start. If there is a link, it will run the normal start.


This will mean there will be one menu (no On Demand menu).

All programs will be included in the menu.

It will not be necessary to run On Demand to create the On Demand menu.

It also has another benefit. If people want to change the menu, they can just edit the menu files, without changing the extensions.


Others may have other ideas about how this could be done. I think the only way to load the menu when the extension is not loaded, is to have it in a separate file.


It may even be possible to put menu info in .dep files, instead of having .menu files.

[bigpcman]

The tc OnDemand extension installation system is a very good idea having many benefits. it works great for most applications.

I do think guy brings up some good points. For me the main issue has to do with OnDemand installation of applications that require unique or personalized post installation configuration. For instance I use Samba and realvnc "dynamically" which requires custom menu and wbar files to be developed and installed that point to scripts that perform the installation and configuration operation. There is nothing "in the way" of doing this it's just something that has to be done using the available cli commands.

[Guy]

I just did an experiment. I copied files (with modified names) from /home/tc/.wmx/OnDemand, to /usr/local/tce.flwm.

Refreshed the menu.

All programs can then be started from the main menu.

So this idea can work. It is just a matter of exactly how it is implemented. Whether separate menu files are created or a script is run to set up the menu.


It is a good idea to make the menu files in version 3 the same as is being created by the latest OnDemand script, whether it is decided to have them in separate files or keep them in extensions.

[roberts]

Only creating the menu at boot and only loading/launching on demand is what the OnDemand experiment is all about. The way I introduced it was the most feasible at the time. With currently packed tczs it  would cause too much delay at boot time. However, a simple restructuring of the tczs could indeed provide the results for ondemand for all. You are getting ahead of the direction that will be pursued.