The menu numbers Intuition provides in the idcmp_menupick messages, describe the ordinal position of the menu in the linked list of menus, the ordinal position of the menu item beneath that menu, and (if applicable) the ordinal position of the sub-item beneath that menu item. Ordinal means the successive number of the linked items, in this case, starting from 0. To determine which menus and menu items (sub-items are special cases of menu items) were selected, use the following macros: Table 6-1: Macros Used with Intuition Menus _______________________________________________________________ | | | MENUNUM(num) Extracts the ordinal menu number from num. | | ITEMNUM(num) Extracts the ordinal item number from num. | | SUBNUM(num) Extracts the ordinal sub-item number from num. | |_______________________________________________________________| MENUNULL is the constant describing "no menu selection made." Likewise, NOMENU, NOITEM, and NOSUB describe the conditions "no menu chosen," "no item chosen" and "no sub-item chosen." For example: if (menuNumber == MENUNULL) /* no menu selection was made */ ; else { /* if there were no sub-items attached to that item, ** SubNumber will equal NOSUB. */ menuNum = MENUNUM(menuNumber); itemNum = ITEMNUM(menuNumber); subNum = SUBNUM(menuNumber); } The menu number received by the program is always set to either MENUNULL or a valid menu selection. If the menu number represents a valid selection, it will always have at least a menu number and a menu item number. Users can never select the menu text itself, but they always select at least an item within a menu. Therefore, the program always gets at least the menu selected and the menu item selected. If the menu item selected has a sub-item, a sub-item number will also be received. Just as it is not possible to select an entry in the menu bar, it is not possible to select a menu item that has attached sub-items. The user must select one of the options in the sub-item list before the program hears about the action as a valid menu selection. Help Is Available. ------------------ The restrictions on what can be selected do not apply to idcmp_menuhelp messages. using menu help, a user can select any component of a menu, including the menu header itself. how menu numbers really work