[RELEASE] New Boot-Loader Menu

[Mike Meyer]

On Fri, 29 Apr 2011 12:02:03 -0700
"Devin Teske" <dteske at vicor.com> wrote:
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Mike Meyer [mailto:mwm at 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,
     <mike
-- 
Mike Meyer <mwm at mired.org>		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