Greetings all;

One of the un-nessessarily difficult aspects of running linuxcnc, is how 
the mouse vs menu's is handled.

LinuxCNC's file menu in particular has a behaviour that needs a liberal 
application of a LART but when I ask the developers about it I am told 
its whatever the window manager does.

In this case chase the  mouse over and click on the left hand "file" 
menu, which brings up a list of next operation  choices, as you would 
expect. 2nd on the menu is "recent files".  Makes perfect sense because 
one is often cycleing thru at least 2 file, maybe more, and several tool 
changes before removing that workpiece from the jig.

Problem is, in order to maintain that 2nd menu, the mouse cursor must not  
leave the "recent files" line of text in the primary menu, else the 
secondary menu disappears to be replaced by the sub-menu the mouse might 
be traveling over, ostensibly on its way to the 2nd menu's display.  Net 
result is that sub-menu's are popping up and disappearing as the mouse 
mopves, and when the pointer arrives at where the filename you wanted to 
click on, its not there, having been replaced by something else whose 
only commonality is that it belongs in the "file" menu category.

1. Clicking on the already highlighted "recent files" line of text does 
nothing, although one would normally expect the click to at least lock 
it to that function.

2. So I must pull over my chair and sit down so I can guide the  mouse as 
it moves sideways, such that it never leaves that line of text.  A 3 
second click here, click on the name, done, simply is not possible.  The 
operation can take as long as 30 seconds to get lucky and guide the 
mouse accurately enough not to lose the menu and get something else.

Is it possible to let the mouse click select the menu, then click select 
the sub-menu, then click select the filename one wants without all this 
gingerbread popping up and derailing ones line of thought?  IOW, do 
nothing between clicks, just check to see where the click was, totally 
ignoring how the mouse got to where the click was issued?

Its called useability by me, and the present menu's popping in and out of 
existence as the mouse is moved performance is a huge hindrance to 
productivity.  

Obviously, showing the pointer moving is fine, but doing nothing else 
until a click is issued would be the ideal target.

Is it fixable someplace?

Thanks people.

Cheers, Gene Heskett
-- 
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>