From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Apr 29 19:24:28 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 558FA106566C for ; Fri, 29 Apr 2011 19:24:28 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mwm@mired.org) Received: from mail-gw0-f54.google.com (mail-gw0-f54.google.com [74.125.83.54]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0F1D38FC15 for ; Fri, 29 Apr 2011 19:24:27 +0000 (UTC) Received: by gwb15 with SMTP id 15so2020826gwb.13 for ; Fri, 29 Apr 2011 12:24:27 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.236.122.130 with SMTP id t2mr6672046yhh.367.1304105067139; Fri, 29 Apr 2011 12:24:27 -0700 (PDT) Received: from bhuda.mired.org (h239.199.28.71.dynamic.ip.windstream.net [71.28.199.239]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id x75sm1456394yhn.24.2011.04.29.12.24.26 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=OTHER); Fri, 29 Apr 2011 12:24:26 -0700 (PDT) Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2011 15:24:23 -0400 From: Mike Meyer To: "Devin Teske" Message-ID: <20110429152423.11736f82@bhuda.mired.org> In-Reply-To: <000301cc069f$edf8bd10$c9ea3730$@vicor.com> References: <9AD2C0D5-F2A7-4F20-B04A-AF9BFC5918F7@vicor.com> <20110429130820.5056390e@bhuda.mired.org> <000301cc069f$edf8bd10$c9ea3730$@vicor.com> Organization: Meyer Consulting X-Mailer: Claws Mail 3.7.7 (GTK+ 2.22.1; amd64-portbld-freebsd8.1) Face: 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 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: 'FreeBSD Hackers' Subject: Re: [RELEASE] New Boot-Loader Menu X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2011 19:24:28 -0000 On Fri, 29 Apr 2011 12:02:03 -0700 "Devin Teske" wrote: > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Mike Meyer [mailto:mwm@mired.org] > > I'd like to revisit the numbers vs. letters for menu options. IIRC (and I may > not), > > an earlier version used letters for the menu options, and people objected to > that > > change. > > Looking at the CVS history of the Forth code that renders the menu, I'm > noticing: > > If there was an earlier version of the menu that used letters, I'm not seeing it > in CVS. I was referring to your code, not the historical FreeBSD code. Didn't you originally propose using letters, not numbers, to toggle the boot options? If not, then possibly I'm remembering another proposal. > > In particular, there was a study done around '80 (I tried to find it but > couldn't; I > > know of someone who can probably provide a reference if someone really wants > > it) that showed that menu selection with letters assigned mnemonically are > > easiest for users to memorize. > > I can believe that quite easily. However, currently the boot menu does not > support such letters. I think this new loader menu is the perfect place to > implement them. This seemed like a good time to change it if we were going to to me. > On another note, I have one other change that I'd like to get in... I noticed > that (in CVS) the menu currently blanks-out option #2 if booting on a system > where ACPI is disabled or unavailable. In my boot loader, I'd like to display > "ACPI Support: N/A" rather than simply blanking out the menu item. That would certainly make the numbers make more sense. Thanks, http://www.mired.org/consulting.html Independent Software developer/SCM consultant, email for more information. O< ascii ribbon campaign - stop html mail - www.asciiribbon.org