if 0 {[Richard Suchenwirth] 2002-04-14 - The following code evolved after 
discussions in the [Tcl Chatroom] - an experiment in "visual coding" of [menu]s,
so the source code approximates the look of the final product in ASCII graphics.

A maybe surprising feature is how the | command is frequently redefined, with 
interp alias, to provide the pathname context that is obviously not given explicitly.
This works well over sub- and "subsub" menus.

Still leaves much to be desired (shortcuts, for instance) - comment, improve!

[http://mini.net/files/visualmenus.jpg]
}

 proc L args {
    if {[. cget -menu]==""} {
	. config -menu [menu .m]
    }
    set name [join $args]
    .m add cascade -label $name -menu [menu .m.m$name -tearoff 0]
    interp alias {} | {} addsubmenu .m.m$name
 }
 proc addsubmenu {menu args} {
    set name [join [lrange $args 0 end-1]]
    set cmd [lindex $args end]
    if {[lindex $cmd 0]=="|"} {
	set subsub [menu $menu.m[clock clicks] -tearoff 0]
	$menu add cascade -label $name -menu $subsub
	interp alias {} | {} addsubmenu $subsub
	eval $cmd
	interp alias {} | {} addsubmenu $menu
    } elseif [regexp {^[-]+} $args] {
	$menu add separator
    } else {
	$menu add command -label $name -command $cmd 
    }
 }
#-------------------------- Sample code, which also shows one cascaded submenu:
 L File
 | Open      openFile
 | Save      {saveAs known}
 | Save As.. saveAs
 | ---
 | Quit      exit

 L Edit
 | Cut       doCut
 | Copy      {
    | foo      {puts foo}
    | bar      {puts bar}
    | grill    {puts grill}
 }
 | Paste     doPaste

----
[Arts and crafts of Tcl-Tk programming]