A83: Re: Menus & ZMENULIB

To: <assembly-83@lists.ticalc.org>
Subject: A83: Re: Menus & ZMENULIB
From: "James Matthews" <matthews@tkb.att.ne.jp>
Date: Sun, 4 Oct 1998 10:17:05 +0900
Delivered-To: assembly-83-outgoing@towerguard.unix.edu.sollentuna.se
Reply-To: assembly-83@lists.ticalc.org


Woah, Linus, pretty damn impressive :)  How close are we to getting the ZMENULIB code off you? :)

Thanks,

James Matthews (matthews@tkb.att.ne.jp)

ICQ: 7413754
http://home.att.ne.jp/gold/tomcat21/index.html
http://library.advanced.org/18242/

----------
> From: Linus Akesson <lairfight@softhome.net>
> To: Assembly-83 <assembly-83@lists.ticalc.org>
> Subject: A83: Menus & ZMENULIB
> Date: Sunday, October 04, 1998 8:15 AM
> 
> Hello.
> 
> The menus play a big role in the TI-83 operating system. Some would say it is
> the very core of the user interface. So how come we can't use it from asm?
> 
> The answer is simple; the menu routines accept 1 byte that specifies which
> menu to put up. All menu-related rom calls read this 1-byte menu code, and
> look up the rest in tables found in ROM. All menu-related rom calls check
> this byte to see whether they should display the reset warning message,
> whether they should build a program list etc. And all menu-related rom calls
> refer to these hardcoded ROM tables and cannot be fed with pointers into ram.
> 
> The BASIC menus? Well, it's indeed complicated. You have to create several
> temporary string variables, push them onto the fpstack, push the names of the
> BASIC labels to jump to, all with proper memory checking and error handling.
> And then you still get the ugly every-other-dot run inicator turned on all
> the time. And then it doesn't work either. =)
> 
> There is only one solution to this (which Pat has actually told us). To write
> your own menu routines. And I've done that.
> 
> ZMENULIB is a 395 bytes big file, containing ready-to-use menu code. It is
> NOT a sos library. Instead, you have to look the program up, and jump to the
> beginning of it. This way, it can be used by shell-independent programs (AND
> sos programs of course).
> 
> Please have a look at the attached files; try running menutest.83p (Send9),
> and then look at its source code. There is also a brief description in the
> readme file.
> 
> Enjoy.
> 
> Linus
> 
>

Follow-Ups:

Re: A83: Re: Menus & ZMENULIB

From: Linus Akesson <lairfight@softhome.net>