dialogwrapper in ports

[Warren Block]

dialogwrapper has now been committed to Tools/scripts in /usr/ports. 
Further testing is requested.


What is dialogwrapper?

dialogwrapper is a wrapper script for dialog(1) that works around some 
bugs and takes advantage of new features to make ports options setting 
easier and better.

On FreeBSD 9 and later, two major features are available:

1. Extended descriptions.  If a description won't fit in the space
    available, a "+" is shown at the far right and the remainder is shown
    at the bottom of the screen.  The easiest way to test this is to pick
    a port, edit one of the option descriptions to be very long, then run
    'make config'.  Hopefully this will eventually allow port maintainers
    to use longer and more meaningful descriptions.

2. Variable menu size.  Options screens in windows larger than 80x24
    show wider descriptions and more lines.  Convenient example: with a
    tall window, do 'make config' in print/ghostscript9.

On FreeBSD 8, dialog(1) does not have a needed feature, so extended 
descriptions are merely chopped off.  This also helps to avoid a bug in 
the older version's display of descriptions that are too long.


How do I use dialogwrapper?

Update your copy of the ports tree, then add this line to 
/etc/make.conf :

   DIALOG="/usr/ports/Tools/scripts/dialogwrapper.sh"

Configure port options as usual.  It should look and work the same as 
usual, but handle long descriptions and bigger windows as described 
above.