Version 7 of e_menu, pluginable menu for editors

This software written in Tcl/Tk and pompously named e_menu provides a menu system bound to an edit session. A text editor with plugin or context facilities allows to use e_menu as "a plugin of plugins" that raises a whole environment of commands & menus around the editor.

Also, e_menu provides a context help on Tcl/Tk commands / keywords while editing a Tcl script. It means that you can set the caret on desirable Tcl/Tk command / keyword and press F1 key (if you map F1 to call e_menu) and then get a help page for the selected Tcl/Tk command / keyword.

By now e_menu is implemented for Geany and TKE editors, both very good for Tcl coding. Though the usage of e_menu is mostly independent on an editor, a few demonstrative details for Geany and TKE are described.

By now e_menu is implemented for:

Also, there are at least three file managers that allow to run e_menu and apply its commands to files and directories.

A sort of quick start demo is available: e_menu.mp4 (~11 Mb).

e_menu has the following features:

calling a context help for Tcl/Tk while editing a Tcl script (nay, any text containing Tcl)
for faster response Tcl/Tk help pages can be made and called offline
opening any number of menus containing any commands (programs) to run
passing a selected text as %s wildcard to the menu commands to process
using a lot of other wildcards in the menu commands, including %f (edited file name), %x (its extention), %d (its directory), %PD (its project's directory derived from %d)
commands can be run by itself and by shell in console box
commands can be run with or without waiting their completion
internal command %E means “edit a file”
internal command %B means “browse an internet link”
internal command %M means “do a message”
internal command %Q means “do a query“
internal command %I means “enter a data that can be required by next commands“
internal command %C means “execute a Tcl code“
internal command %S means “execute OS command“
internal command %IF means “conditional execution“
- all internal commands can include a selected text
a batch of multiple commands can be united under a single menu item which in turn can be multi-lined
a menu item can include the whole shell script (even in two ways), so no need of disk files to perform it
any command can be confirmed, with message box of title and text including the selection
input dialogs (with entries, checkboxes, radiobuttons etc.) may provide data for commands
- the data may be saved/restored between sessions
a hierarchy of menus is provided
a child menu can be called with or without waiting it, with or without closing its parent menu
a child menu can be called with closing its parent and calling back the parent after closing the child
menus can be called (or made afterwards) as 'stayed on the top of screen'
menus can be called to stay at any desirable position with reasonable width
inactive menus are lowlighted as opposed to highlighted active ones
menu items can be bound to hotkeys F1-F12 (by default they are bound to 1-9a-zA-Z which makes maximum 61+3=64 items)
menu items and their underlying commands can include counters of their calls (up to 10 counters per a menu)
menu items and their underlying commands can be supplied with current date/time
e_menu menus are independent applications and as such can be run independently on the editor
any menu item can be assigned to 'autorun' at start of e_menu (submenus including)
commands that are invisible in menu may be assigned to 'autorun' (submenus including)
Tcl command(s) can be assigned to 'autorun' at start of e_menu
menus can be edited 'on fly' and then re-read
when calling non-existent menu you are prompted to create it from a template; so you can create all menu system 'on fly'
'autorun' items and commands are also re-run when the menu is re-read
menu items can be run repeatedly at intervals set in seconds
e_menu can be started with a pause to delay its initialization
e_menu neighboring applications can be killed with two keystrokes (sort of clearance)
there are a lot of 'look and feel' options
the options may be set at calling of e_menu and/or in OPTIONS section of a menu
parent menu options are inherited by child menu and can be overridden by its OPTIONS
as an easy exercise, Mercurial or Fossil SCM support can be provided with e_menu
- e.g. minimizing binary overheads for sites managed by Mercurial SCM
encoding of menus is utf-8

You can include in your menus any commands that would process the selected text, as well as other relevant attributes: a current file's name, a file's directory, time/date, environment variables, a project's directory etc.

For example, having this menu:

and "class" selected in the edited text, we can perform the following:

HELP "class" - get a help on "class" (i.e. oo::class of Tcl)
EXEC "class" - execute the selection as a command with arguments
SHELL "class" - execute the selection in the console box
Run me (with class) - execute a current edited file with the selection as an argument(s)
Run Tcl {class} ... - run the selection as Tcl code in console box
Edit/create file "class" - edit (or create if absent) a file named after the selection
Open directory "src" - open the current file's directory by file manager
Open terminal in "src" - open a console box for the current file's directory
Open in Firefox "class" site - go to an Internet site named after the selection (in Firefox)
Search in Firefox "class" - run Firefox's search machine for the selection
Open Wikipedia for "class" - go to Wikipedia for the selection
Open GoldenDict for "class" - go to GoldenDict for the selection
Search All class in src - open a submenu to run grep (with a lot of options) to find the selection in the current file's directory
Backup of paveme.tcl - create a backup of the current file (similar to Vim's backup)
Commit "class_on_'date'_'time'" - make a SCM commit with the selection+date+time as the commit message
Differences of pafeme.tcl - show changes made to the current file since some prior commit (being chosen)
Edit all *.tcl of 'current dir' - open all .tcl files of the current file's directory
Fossil, Git, Hg - open a submenu with corresponding SCM commands
Utils - open a submenu with miscellaneous commands and submenus

Further details:

https://aplsimple.bitbucket.io/en/tcl/e_menu

Download links:

https://aplsimple.bitbucket.io/bin/e_menu.rar

https://aplsimple.bitbucket.io/files/e_menu.mp4