emu.register_menu documentation?

[Jakobud]

Is there any documentation around emu.register_menu and the populate and callback functions that go with them? I'm looking through the source and plugin examples and can't figure it out 100%. For example:

timer plugin:

local function menu_populate()
		lastupdate = os.time()
		local refname = (reference == 0) and _p('plugin-timer', 'Wall clock') or _p('plugin-timer', 'Emulated time')
		local time = (reference == 0) and (lastupdate - start_time) or manager.machine.time.seconds
		local total = (reference == 0) and (total_time + time) or (manager.machine.time + emu_total).seconds
		return
			{
				{ _p("plugin-timer", "Reference"), refname, (reference == 0) and 'r' or 'l' },
				{ '---', '', '' },
				{ _p("plugin-timer", "Current time"), sectohms(time), "off" },
				{ _p("plugin-timer", "Total time"), sectohms(total), "off" },
				{ _p("plugin-timer", "Play Count"), tostring(play_count), "off" } },
			highlight,
			"idle"
	end

The function returns a table, and then a local variable called highlight that is nil I think, and then the string "idle". Is there any documentation around any of this? Also { _p("plugin-timer", "Reference"), refname, (reference == 0) and 'r' or 'l' }, what is that? Is that a menu option that you define a string name for it, the variable that it stores and the default value?

timecode plugin

It has `table.insert(result, { _p('plugin-timecode', 'Frame numbers'), frame_mode_val, (frame_mode > 0) and 'l' or 'r' })` there is that `l` or `r` thing again. Is it setting the value (default value?) to `l` if `frame_mode > 0` otherwise `l` ?

Side note, is `_p('plugin-name', 'some-string')` some sort of localization thing? Any documentation on this?

[cuavas]

It's poorly designed and needs to be replaced. It won't be documented in its current form because it's basically unsupportable. You can look at the source of the menu class behind it, or follow examples in existing plugins.

The three return values are:

• Table of menu items
• Index of item to move highlight to
• Menu processing flags

Each entry in the table of items is:

• Item text (some values are magic, like --- for producing a separator)
• Value text
• Item flags (e.g. off for a disabled item or l and r to show the arrows for adjustable values)