[syslinux] Syslinux 4.06-pre12

[Ady]

Subject:        	Re: [syslinux] Syslinux 4.06-pre12
From:           	Matt Fleming <matt at console-pimps.org>
Date sent:      	Tue, 09 Oct 2012 13:33:35 +0100

> > 2_ "MENU DEFAULT" with several submenus is not working when coming 
> > from a different submenu (using MENU GOTO for example).
> 
> Yep, that seems like a bug. The MENU GOTO is the important part of that
> problem. I've replied to Tomas' mail with a patch.
>  

I hope someone can test that emailed patch and provide feedback.

> > 3_ "display.c32" doesn't seem to work correctly. It also needs 
> > improvements for the "MORE" functionality in it. Maybe the problem is 
> > that it is located under the complex menu directory (./com32/cmenu/)?
> 
> Do you have a full description of this problem? In what way does
> display.c32 not work correctly?
> 

I think display.c32 is not working (at all) since 4.00.

There are partial alternatives to display.c32, but there is one 
functionality that isn't fully replicated in those alternatives. Let 
me explain.

 _ "F1...F12": can only display one last page. If the content of the 
file is longer than one page, the first lines just "run through the 
screen" and the user can effectively read the last page only.

 _ "display <filename>": same as above.

 _ "MENU HELP": same as above.

 _ "cat.c32": same as above.

 _ "rosh.c32": Although capable of displaying one page at a time 
(with some quirks), it is not _that_ easy to manage for a simple, 
non-technical oriented, sporadic user.

If you don't want to touch display.c32, then at least add the "MORE" 
functionality to cat.c32. A "simple" user knows how to use the 
"arrow" keys in the keyboard to go up and down one line, and the 
"PageUp" and "PageDown" keys to scroll one page at a time. Keys like 
"Home" and "End" are probably self-explanatory at this point. 
Pressing [ESC] could just finish the process and would go back to the 
previous state (the boot prompt, or menu.c32 or whatever was that 
previous state), which is the same behavior as in the other "simple" 
alternatives (but not in rosh).



> > 4_ "MENU DISABLE" for the last menu entry (not active but still 
> > "selectable").
> 
> Right. That looks like a small bug fix. I replied to Matt's email.
> 

Let's hope someone tests the emailed patch and provides feedback.

> > 5_ What about
> >  http://www.syslinux.org/archives/2012-September/018039.html ?
> 
> This is a missing feature, rather than any kind of a bug. I don't see a
> reason to block 4.06 for this. If someone writes a patch it can be
> applied to a future release.
> 

Probably the most relevant new feature for final users is the NTFS 
support. Isn't that report about it? Is Paulo checking it?

> > 6_ What about
> >   http://www.syslinux.org/archives/2012-September/018075.html ?
> 
> Again, this looks more involved than a simple one-line bug fix. If
> someone wants to send patches then I'd be happy to review them.
> 

About #6...

I know it is not a critical feature. It is not a bug in the sense 
that it is not going to break anything. But, currently, 2 out of the 
8 possible cases are completely useless. My suggestion (request) adds 
actual usefulness to those 2 cases, and corrects the current 
inaccurate documentation.

Since the current documentation about it is incomplete (and even 
wrong), it took me several months of testing to understand the real 
current behavior (I thought I was doing something wrong) and thus 
come up with the suggestion. My first email about it was sent close 
to 3 months ago (after I had been already testing it for some long 
time before that first email).

Quoting HPA:
 "if the current behavior is useless to people AND the corrected 
behavior would be useful to people, then it is worth fixing."

I wish I could fix it myself, but I'm not a developer. So, after so 
much testing and emails, my only hope is that someone else would take 
the challenge and fix it.

TIA,
Ady.