Re: Dynamic menu text?

Hi!

A PR exists implementing this and more: 
https://github.com/ctwm-wm/ctwm/pull/1

Regards,

Max.

Le 09/04/2026 à 00:00, Thomas E. Kammeyer a écrit :
> Hello folks,
>
> Apologies if this has been considered before, and especially if it's
> implemented and I missed it in docs.
>
> I was wondering if consideration has ever been given to allowing a
> leading "!" on menu entry text to cause ctwm to display the output of a
> command (subject to limitations like some max. #chars and ending
> regardless at, say, \r or \n)?
>
> Note that I'm talking about the text displayed when the menu is pulled
> down / displayed and not the menu entry action (where a lead '!'
> already has a meaning as a short form of f.exec).
>
> So a menu might look like (this is edited down for brevity but based on
> something in my rc file):
>
>     menu "defops" {
>     "My menu example" f.title
>
>     "!date"    f.nop
>
>     "Identify" f.identify
>     "Iconify"   f.iconify
>     "Resize" f.resize
>     "Move"      f.move
>     }
>
> The "!date" entry would run the "date" command when the menu was
> being displayed and, at run time, display the current date and time at
> the top of the menu. The action could be replaced by something that
> cuts the date and time to the clipboard as well but that's already
> doable so I'm not discussing it further here.
>
> This would be useful to me because I run a _very_ uncluttered desktop
> and I dislike having the clock hanging out on the desktop anyway... OK,
> there are other ways of not seeing the time all the, er, time.
>
> This seems like it might have other uses... though I admit it raises
> implementation issues for sure and abuse potential would need to be
> controlled.
>
> Has this ever been considered?
>
> Thanks,
> -Thomas K
>