Menus

Overview

Menus provide the user of a Motif program with the ability to control the operation of that program in a “point and click” manner. They are the preferred method of program control: unobtrusive when not in use, they allow the user to quickly choose from a list of alternate actions.

Motif provides four types of menus. The menu bar is positioned at the top of a standard Motif program: it provides an always-accessible method of controlling the program’s major functions; these functions are divided into named topics. Attached to the menu bar, pull-down menus provide a list of functions “sub-” associated each topic. Pop-up menus are used for context-dependent control, and are accessed by means other than the menu bar. Finally, option menus are used in dialog boxes and other context -dependent situations where the program needs to provide a menu that displays its current choice.

Menus are implemented using the XmRowColumn widget class. The menu bar is a horizontal row-column, as is an option menu; pull-down and pop-up menus are vertically oriented. The menu bar can contain only cascade-button widgets (described below); menu panes may contain any type of child, although most programs use only labels, separators, and buttons.