[Pythonmac-SIG] Is the menu enabled?

[Joseph J. Strout]

At 12:23 PM -0400 10/12/99, James B. Wilkinson wrote:

>I see that the Menu module implements the GetMenuHandle() function, but I
>have no idea how to use it in Python. In C, I think I could use the handle
>to get to the MenuInfo record and look at the enableFlags. How to do that
>in Python is beyond me, and I don't know how to learn anything beyond what
>I've done: type "import Menu" and "dir(Menu)". That tells me that
>GetMenuHandle() is there, but not how to use it. Is there a good way to
>answer questions like this, or do you just have to know?

Go it a step further.  Start with "inspect(Menu)" rather than 
"dir(Menu)", as you'll have easy access to the docstrings for each 
function this way.  Then do  "foo = GetMenuHandle()" (passing 
whatever it needs passed to get this step to work), and then 
"inspect(foo)", which will show you the methods and members of foo.

Now, foo is a resource object (resources and handles are the same 
thing in MacPython, for some odd reason).  You can get its data (it's 
just a member, IIRC).  That data is of the same format as documented 
in your favorite toolbox reference (i.e., whatever a MenuHandle 
refers to).  You can use the struct module to unpack this and get 
whatever you need out of it.

Cheers,
-- Joe

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|    Joseph J. Strout           Biocomputing -- The Salk Institute |
|    joe@strout.net             http://www.strout.net              |
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