Menu maker: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 02:59, 9 March 2026

Tools - Automated Menu Maker Tool

The included program "menu maker" is a self-contained utility used to automatically create command menus for each access level on the system.

To use "menu maker", first boot the "+shell" program to install the Color 64 ML. Then load and run the "menu maker" program. If you have just shut down your BBS, you may also load and run "menu maker" without first running "+shell", since the ML will still be resident in memory.

When the program runs, it loads the "√bbs.parms" file in order to determine the access level associated with each command.

The DATA statements located at lines 40000–40043 contain the text descriptions for each command number. Any entries marked "**UNUSED**" are ignored when the menus are created, since they correspond to parameters that are not actual commands.

You may change these descriptions as desired; however, only the first 15 characters of each description are used. This limitation ensures that the menu formatting remains consistent.

Lines 20035–20050 contain the header used for the generated menus. The current header text is generic and can be modified to whatever you prefer.

The menus are designed to display correctly in both 40-column and 80-column modes. Each command entry consists of the command character and description totaling 20 characters, which allows two entries per line in 40-column mode.

Example of the menu display in 40 columns (an F5 color code precedes each description, causing it to cycle through the system colors):

[R] Read Msgs       [@] Post Office  
[L] Caller Log      [M] Membership List

The menu maker uses a Variable MCI for each command character inside the brackets. This means that if you later change a command character in SETUP (without changing the access level), the menu files will automatically reflect the new command character. In that case, it is not necessary to run the menu maker program again.

The generated menu files also include MCIs that print the current time and date, which helps reduce overall program space requirements.

Tools

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 [[tools|Tools]] - <strong>Automated Menu Maker Tool</strong>
-The included program "menu maker" is a self-contained menu-making program that will create a menu for each access level.  To use menu maker, first boot the "+shell" program to install the ML.  Then load and run the menu maker program.  Also, if you have just shut your BBS down, you can load and run "menu maker" without loading the "+shell" program, because the ML will still be installed.
+The included program <strong>"menu maker"</strong> is a self-contained utility used to automatically create command menus for each access level on the system.
-When you run the program, it will load your "√bbs.parms" file to get the level for each command.  The data statements from line 40000-40043 contain the description for each command number.  Those descriptions that say "**UNUSED**" are not used in creating the menus, because they are associated with parameters that aren't commands.
+To use <strong>"menu maker"</strong>, first boot the <strong>"+shell"</strong> program to install the Color 64 ML. Then load and run the <strong>"menu maker"</strong> program. If you have just shut down your BBS, you may also load and run <strong>"menu maker"</strong> without first running <strong>"+shell"</strong>, since the ML will still be resident in memory.
-Change the descriptions to whatever you wish, but only the first 15 characters of each description will be used (for formatting purposes).
+When the program runs, it loads the <strong>"√bbs.parms"</strong> file in order to determine the access level associated with each command.
-Lines 20035-20050 contain the header of the menus.  Currently it has some generic text in it but change it to whatever you wish.  The menus are created so that they work in both 40 and 80 columns because each command character and description totals out to 20 characters each.  Here is a demonstration of what the descriptions will look like in 40 columns (an F5 character precedes each description, so it cycles through your system colors):
+The DATA statements located at lines <strong>40000–40043</strong> contain the text descriptions for each command number. Any entries marked <strong>"**UNUSED**"</strong> are ignored when the menus are created, since they correspond to parameters that are not actual commands.
+You may change these descriptions as desired; however, only the first <strong>15 characters</strong> of each description are used. This limitation ensures that the menu formatting remains consistent.
+Lines <strong>20035–20050</strong> contain the header used for the generated menus. The current header text is generic and can be modified to whatever you prefer.
+The menus are designed to display correctly in both <strong>40-column</strong> and <strong>80-column</strong> modes. Each command entry consists of the command character and description totaling <strong>20 characters</strong>, which allows two entries per line in 40-column mode.
+Example of the menu display in 40 columns (an <strong>F5</strong> color code precedes each description, causing it to cycle through the system colors):
   [R] Read Msgs       [@] Post Office
   [L] Caller Log      [M] Membership List
-The menu maker uses a Variable MCI for each command character inside the brackets.  This means that if you change a command character (but not a level for one) in SETUP, the menus will automatically change to reflect the new command character (and thus you won't have to re-run the menu maker).
+The menu maker uses a <strong>Variable MCI</strong> for each command character inside the brackets. This means that if you later change a command character in <strong>SETUP</strong> (without changing the access level), the menu files will automatically reflect the new command character. In that case, it is not necessary to run the menu maker program again.
-MCIs to print the time and date are also included in the files, to save program space.
+The generated menu files also include MCIs that print the current <strong>time</strong> and <strong>date</strong>, which helps reduce overall program space requirements.
 [[tools|Tools]]