Menu{Master,Maestro,etc} question(s)

[Del]

I just finished converting a medium sized application from Menu Master to 
filePro menus.  This was on Windows XP.  Before they contacted me, I did not 
even know that Menu Master was available on Windows, since I normally run 
only SCO Unix.

This was a LOT of work, especially the reports and writing selection 
processing to do what the menu master replace function was doing with the 
selection sets and processing table substitution.

My idea has been to write a filePro front end to interpret and execute our 
original menu maestro scripts.  I did a little quick and dirty pilot to make 
sure this could be done, and it worked ok for the limited subset of menu 
maestro functions that we use. THE IDEA WAS TO GET RID OF ALL THIRD PARTY 
SOFTWARE SO AS TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF FILEPRO'S EXCELLENT PORTABILITY BETWEEN 
OPERATING SYSTEMS.  However, none of my customer's were concerned enough 
about it to pay for a conversion, so the idea was never fully implemented. 
So they are stuck on SCO Unix as long as they want to run their existing 
applications.  The ones that want off are more interested in moving to our 
SQL/Cold Fusion system, which is now ready for prime time.  But I still 
think the idea of replacing menu maestro (menu master) with a native filePro 
front end to read the same scripts is the way to go to achieve portability 
with our existing systems, because we have literally hundreds of menu 
maestro menus and converting them to filePro menus would be even more work 
than writing an interpreter.

Del
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bill Campbell" <bill at celestial.com>
To: <filepro-list at lists.celestial.com>
Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2007 6:46 PM
Subject: Re: Menu{Master,Maestro,etc} question(s)


> On Tue, May 08, 2007, Mike Schwartz wrote:
>>     I have probably three (3) customers who still use MenuMaster.  All 3
>>are still on SCO Open Server, and may not want to migrate to Linux, 
>>although
>>this *is* one of the big things they don't want to deal with on Linux.
>>
>>     I terms of money, none of the 3 would want to pay more than a couple 
>> of
>>hundred dollars for an upgraded version, though.  I approached them (and 
>>the
>>list) several years with the opportunity to purchase the original 
>>MenuMaster
>>(and Maestro, etc.) rights and code for $10,000.00, but I wasn't available
>>to gather enough support to do that.
>
> This keeps coming up on the list, I have to ask what would be so difficult
> in doing a replacement menu program to replace menumaster and friends.
>
> I write a fairly simple python script with a curses interface that 
> displays
> all the executables in a directory and it's children (by default
> $HOME/lbin), allowing one to execute programs by highlighting them and
> pressing ENTER.  One navigates the programs using the normal arrow keys, 
> vi
> cursor keys, j, and k, pgup, pgdown, home, and end, entering the number of
> a selection.  One can limit the selection using the normal vi ``/'' key to
> enter a pattern then select from the limited set.
>
> The attached screen shot shows the selection from ``/catb'' which allows 
> me
> to open ssh sessions to machine ``catbert'' as different users.  To log
> into the public IP of catbert, I pressed ``/catb<ENTER>jj<ENTER>''.  I
> could have used the down-arrow key instead of the ``jj'', but that would
> have required I take my fingers off the home keys.
>
> I consider this a CBE (Crude But Effective) tool that is considerably
> faster and easier to use than digging around in a graphical directory
> browser to find programs, and can be easily tailored to a specific
> application simply by creating a directory structure with meaningful names
> for the executables.
>
> Bill
> --
> INTERNET:   bill at Celestial.COM  Bill Campbell; Celestial Software LLC
> URL: http://www.celestial.com/  PO Box 820; 6641 E. Mercer Way
> FAX:            (206) 232-9186  Mercer Island, WA 98040-0820; (206) 
> 236-1676
>
> With Congress, every time they make a joke it's a law; and every time
> they make a law it's a joke.
> -- Will Rogers
>


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