Grid menus are the hardest to maintain but they give you the most flexibility because you can run events on user input based on what is highlight (like for example, if you want to do something specific
whenever a user presses left arrow when " Item 1" is highlighted, you can).

If you just want an ANSI background and you want to plot menu items
around the screen, using the standard lightbar style menu is much easier to do.

The problem I had with just doing standard lightbar is I can't seem to make
the headings not part of the lightbar scrolling around. So i have say 4-5 lightbars set to the x,y coordinates and the grid up/downs are pointing to themselves and cycle over if you go up on the top one etc. That allowed me
to create 2 other entries i used as headers that had no hotkeys. once i flip to just lightbar then those headers are 'stepped' through. The lightbar is neat, but I don't even really need it, i just want the menu items to be plottable on an ansi menu. They don't have to be up/down/left/right selectable. But if that's the only way/best way to do it then so be it :)

When i used the vertical select lightbar (which is cool) it seemed to render that as a kind of submenu, and take over input. it wouldn't let me enter any keys other than choosing a lightbar selection, and then after it displayed
the menu prompt and launched the appropriate app. So you could only really
ever have 1 box active on any given page. I haven't experimented too much
with the other types of boxes. I do like this kind of thing as you only have to really assign the first coordinate and then let the menu grow dynamically. Neat feature, I can think of a few ways to use it

Also, thanks for that other mail with the extended menu descriptions that was very helpful.

|07E|10m|07b|10a|07l|10m|07e|10d |12-----------------------------------------------------
|09Black Lodge Research BBS |11blacklodgeresearch.org:4022
|11fsx|08Net: |0721:4/166 |11sci|08Net: |0777:1/133

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Black Lodge Research BBS (21:4/166)

Lightbar/Grid menu - Do all of the stuff Lightbar menus do but it gives you insane control over being able to decide what to do at a per-key and per-menu option level, allowing insane control but requires you to micromanage every detail. Most people probably do not even grasp how powerful this type is.

Hey g00r00, have you seen the "lottabull" mod? It's available for download on the phenomprod site.

It takes an array of options in a .ini file, dynamically generates a litebar screen where you can scroll through multiple pages with pgup/pgdown, left/right, but also just standard up/down to go one option at a time.

Does Lightbar/Grid do the same thing?

I repurposed much of the lottabull mod for my door game launcher but if
there's a way to do the exact same thing with built-in Mystic menu features instead of a standalone mod, I'd prefer to do that.

Thanks!

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A44 2020/02/04 (Linux/64)
* Origin: monterey bbs (21:1/168)

make the headings not part of the lightbar scrolling around. So i have say 4-5 lightbars set to the x,y coordinates and the grid up/downs are pointing to themselves and cycle over if you go up on the top one etc. That allowed me to create 2 other entries i used as headers that had no hotkeys. once i flip to just lightbar then those headers are 'stepped' through. The lightbar is neat, but I don't even really need it, i just want the menu items to be plottable on an ansi menu. They don't have to be up/down/left/right selectable. But if that's the only way/best way
to do it then so be it :)

I think its an opinion what the best way is. But for what you're describing I'd probably just use a single ANSI file for the entire menu (which you can still edit from in Mystic's menu editor) and use a standard style menu.

The lightbar is nice if you want to plot your commands. I don't really understand what you mean by headers getting selected. Normally you'd put anything you don't want selectable in the "background" ANSI and only the options you want selected as menu commands with an X/Y location.

For Lightbar/Grid it won't even do anything unless you tell it to as far as selectable jumps.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Windows/64)
* Origin: Sector 7 (21:1/108)

download on the phenomprod site.

No, I haven't. Unfortunately I don't see many mods at all these days because
I spend all my time working on things or answering messages.

It takes an array of options in a .ini file, dynamically generates a litebar screen where you can scroll through multiple pages with pgup/pgdown, left/right, but also just standard up/down to go one option at a time.

Sounds awesome!

Does Lightbar/Grid do the same thing?

It could, but it'd be a lot more work to do it using grid menus than what it sounds like you are doing with the mod.

I repurposed much of the lottabull mod for my door game launcher but if there's a way to do the exact same thing with built-in Mystic menu features instead of a standalone mod, I'd prefer to do that.

It wouldn't be dynamic and it'd be hard to manage, but I think it'd be doable technically. I wouldn't recommend it personally, if you already have a mod doing what you want and its maintainable.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Windows/64)
* Origin: Sector 7 (21:1/108)

The lightbar is nice if you want to plot your commands. I don't really understand what you mean by headers getting selected. Normally you'd put anything you don't want selectable in the "background" ANSI and only the options you want selected as menu commands with an X/Y location.

I didn't want them in the background ansi, I wanted to be able to assign the text dynamically via the menu so i could use the ansi more places. It's not really that big of a deal though. So for the headers i just created another lightbar item that I don't want to activate and position it with the XY. It works but in default mode arrowing through them ends up selecting the column headers i setup also and they are not 'items'.

|07E|10m|07b|10a|07l|10m|07e|10d |12-----------------------------------------------------
|09Black Lodge Research BBS |11blacklodgeresearch.org:4022
|11fsx|08Net: |0721:4/166 |11sci|08Net: |0777:1/133

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Black Lodge Research BBS (21:4/166)

It wouldn't be dynamic and it'd be hard to manage, but I think it'd be doable technically. I wouldn't recommend it personally, if you already have a mod doing what you want and its maintainable.

Cool, sounds good. Thanks man!

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A44 2020/02/04 (Linux/64)
* Origin: monterey bbs (21:1/168)

the text dynamically via the menu so i could use the ansi more places. It's not really that big of a deal though. So for the headers i just created another lightbar item that I don't want to activate and position it with the XY. It works but in default mode arrowing through them ends

I see. So to fix that you can make a EVERY hotkey menu command that automatically executes. And in it you can use the GT Display Text menu
command to draw your headers.

You could also probably draw them using the menu footer.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Windows/64)
* Origin: Sector 7 (21:1/108)

I see. So to fix that you can make a EVERY hotkey menu command that automatically executes. And in it you can use the GT Display Text menu command to draw your headers.

You could also probably draw them using the menu footer.

Cool I'll poke around with that setup :)

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Black Lodge Research BBS (21:4/166)