perlmenu.pm
                                 Perl Menus
                                 Version 4.0
                              February 17, 1997

                               Steven L. Kunz
                           Networked Applications
                  Iowa State University Computation Center
                            Iowa State University
                                 Ames,  Iowa
                  

                         --------------------------
                         Frequently Asked Questions
                         --------------------------

---------------------------
Where do I get "PerlMenus"?
---------------------------

  The PerlMenu package is distributed via "CPAN" (the "Comprehensive Perl
  Archive Network").  Pick a CPAN site near you with a WWW browser pointed
  at "http://www.perl.com/perl/CPAN/CPAN.html" and go into the
  "authors/Steven L Kunz" folder.  You should find the latest release there.

  The author's official distribution is alos available via anonymous FTP
  from: 

      ftp://ftp.iastate.edu/pub/perl/perlmenu.v<n>.<n>.tar.Z

  New releases are announced in the Usenet newsgroups
  "comp.lang.perl.announce" and "comp.lang.perl.modules".


----------
The terminal state ("echo" and other settings) are not restored when 
exiting a PerlMenu application.  
----------

     This is usually due to either an obscure coding problem (outlined here)
     or a problem with your curses library (which you probably can do
     nothing about but can circumvent).  Both situations are discussed here. 

     The most common coding problem occurs when you write an application
     using curses calls yourself (and not letting PerlMenu do ALL the work). 
     It may be the case you are using "menu_curses_application" and NOT
     calling "endwin" before exiting your application.  Refer to the
     "menu_curses_application" routine documentation (in the "Other
     Menu-Related PerlMenu Routines" section of this document).  You will
     find a sentence that indicates "You should make sure you issue an
     "endwin" call prior to exiting." when using the
     "menu_curses_application" routine.  This "endwin" call is what restores
     the terminal environment on most systems.  It is a subtle mistake
     (indeed, until version 4.0 of PerlMenu it was present in many of the
     demo programs included with PerlMenu!).  Double-check your code for an
     "endwin" at every exit point if you use "menu_curses_application" in
     your code.  If you have code that looks like this at the top of your
     program:  

       $window = &initscr();
       &menu_curses_application($window);

     then you will need this at every exit point:

       &endwin;

     Sometimes you can code the "endwin" routine as your
     "menu_quit_routine".  For example:  

       &menu_quit_routine( "endwin" );

     If you have other code to do in a "menu_quit_routine", include
     "&endwin"  near the end.  Make sure you are covered by a call to
     "endwin" at any other exit points within your code.  

     If you continue to have problems with terminal settings after checking
     for the above conditions, you may have a problem in your curses library
     (built into your version of Perl) that prevents proper restoration of
     the "tty" settings.  A circumvention that works is restore the terminal
     settings yourself before you exit your code (again, the same place your
     "endwin" calls are located - probably AFTER them).  Include a Perl
     command like the following:  

       [...]
       &endwin;
       system("stty sane");
       [...]

     This UNIX command restores a general default environment to your tty
     terminal on many UNIX systems.  You can check on your particular "stty"
     options and only turn back on the ones that you know are bad
     ('system("stty echo");' or whatever).  Experiment with the "stty"
     command AFTER exiting your application to see what restores the
     terminal on your system, then code that into your application in all
     the appropriate exit points.  

----------
The demos don't work right.  It looks like everything I type is "buffered
up" and not acted upon right away, then a whole bunch happens at once!
----------
  
  Try placing the following line at the beginning of your main code
  (before the first call to "menu_init": 
  
    $| = 1;    # Flush after every write to stdout
    
  This forces STDOUT to flush after every "write" or "print".  Many systems
  default to "line buffering" by default for output to the terminal.

----------
I want to mix menus and templates.  For example, I want to put a three item
"radio" button menu on my input template to simplify setting something.
----------

  Sorry, you can't do this (yet).  It is on the list of "things to do".