introducing conditional submenus in the config process?

introducing conditional submenus in the config process?

[Robert P. J. Day]

  i brought this up a while back but nothing was finalized -- is there
sufficient value in being able to select or deselect entire submenus
of features without having to descend into that submenu first?

  as a random example, consider Device Drivers --> MTD support.  as it
stands, i can select or deselect MTD support in its entirety only by
first going into the MTD submenu.  i mentioned before that it would be
far more convenient to have the selection switch on that upper-level
menu entry instead, which you can get with a patch like this:

==================================================
diff --git a/drivers/mtd/Kconfig b/drivers/mtd/Kconfig
index 26f75c2..1233602 100644
--- a/drivers/mtd/Kconfig
+++ b/drivers/mtd/Kconfig
@@ -1,8 +1,6 @@
 # $Id: Kconfig,v 1.11 2005/11/07 11:14:19 gleixner Exp $

-menu "Memory Technology Devices (MTD)"
-
-config MTD
+menuconfig MTD
 	tristate "Memory Technology Device (MTD) support"
 	help
 	  Memory Technology Devices are flash, RAM and similar chips, often
@@ -13,6 +11,8 @@ config MTD
 	  them. It will also allow you to select individual drivers for
 	  particular hardware and users of MTD devices. If unsure, say N.

+if MTD
+
 config MTD_DEBUG
 	bool "Debugging"
 	depends on MTD
@@ -292,5 +292,5 @@ source "drivers/mtd/nand/Kconfig"

 source "drivers/mtd/onenand/Kconfig"

-endmenu
+endif
=====================================================

  so the higher level config feature changes from a "config" to a
"menuconfig", then the entire submenu is wrapped in the appropriate
conditional.  this sort of thing could be used in all kinds of places
in the current Kconfig structure to avoid constantly visiting
submenus.

  (as an aside, rather than have to implement this with two Kconfig
features, it might even be worth creating a whole new feature,
something like "submenuconfig" or whatever, that does all this
automatically.)

  thoughts?

rday

-- 
========================================================================
Robert P. J. Day
Linux Consulting, Training and Annoying Kernel Pedantry
Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA

http://fsdev.net/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
========================================================================

Re: introducing conditional submenus in the config process?

[DervishD]

    Hi Robert :)

 * Robert P. J. Day <rpjday@mindspring.com> dixit:
> 
>   i brought this up a while back but nothing was finalized -- is there
>   sufficient value in being able to select or deselect entire submenus
>   of features without having to descend into that submenu first?

    Not that my opinion counts at all, but IMHO this is a VERY good
idea. OK, the kernel configuration system is not for the faint of heart
anyway, but doing it a bit more user-friendly is a good idea.

    Apart for user-friendlyness, which in itself is a good point, the
most important thing here is speed. Normally I have a base .config and I
work by adding/removing a couple of features, but being able to
deselect/select full submenus in just one checkbox is faster (and IMHO
less error prone, specially when your fingers fly across the keyboard)
than having to descend.

    Moreover, it adds a bit more of structure to the kernel
configuration. The first time it can be scary...

    So, I vote for that, even if my opinion doesn't count and I don't
have a vote. For me looks like a very good idea.

    Raúl Núñez de Arenas Coronado

-- 
Linux Registered User 88736 | http://www.dervishd.net
It's my PC and I'll cry if I want to... RAmen!