27 December 1992 by T.W.Tan
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                 |   MORE HELP on customisation using "e" |
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I. EDITING PRE-FORMED MENUS
II.EDITING DYNAMICALLY FORMED MENUS

I. EDITING PRE-FORMED MENUS
---------------------------
Files which are linked by "File-Display" links can be edited with the
default ASCII text editor (as specified in your environmental variable
EDITOR=full_path_name_of_editor ).

Try pressing "e" and you will be told if you can't edit the screen. However,
if you can edit it, you will be automatically put into the editor mode.
Be sure you know how to get out of an editor mode before you start.

	To get out of a text editor:
	----------------------------
	For vi text editor,  enter :q!    or just   shift-zz
	For Joe's editor,  try  Control-k-q or
	For pico,  try  Control-x
	For emacs, try Control-x Control-c

The file that you are editing is probably owned by the system manager,
particularly if the HYBROW installation was not done by you.
Therefore, you do not own the file and hence cannot save into it.
Imagine the mayhem if anybody and everybody starts editing the
commonly shared menu system. Nevertheless, you can edit the file which
you don't own and save it as your own file instead.  Read on to see how.


RECOMMENDED STRATEGIES for customising your own menus
----------------------

A. You wish to retain the same format as the common system but would
   like to change a few features of a menu screen or two.

   1. Edit the screen, say file name is "menu" (if a file-linked menu) 
      and create your own links.
   2. Save it as the same menu name but within your known directory, 
      say, as /home/my_dir/hybrow/menu
   3. Next time you invoke HYBROW, specify the -s option
      %  hybrow -s/home/my_dir/hybrow
      This will cause hybrow to search in your directory /home/my_dir/hybrow
      for file-linked menu files first, and then the default directory
      specified by the person who installed HYBROW.  So naturally,
      when it comes to "menu", it will pick up your version instead of
      the "menu" file common to all.
    WARNING, you must not have any filenames which clash with those
    used by file-display links in HYBROW in your -s specified directory
    or else yours will be used first.
    Therefore, I recommend you have a special directory dedicated to
    storing your HYBROW menu modifications.
    I also recommend you to put in your .login or .cshrc or whatever
    an alias for your personal hybrow command, eg. put this line in your
    .login file

    alias mybrow hybrow -s/home/my_dir/hybrow

    or something to that effect and subsequently, upon logging in,
    the alias will be set, such that executing mybrow will invoke
    the hybrow command with the -s option.

B. You wish to add new menus, peculiar to yourself, to be linked from
   the general site menu system.

   1. Carry out steps 1 and 2 in section A for the menu that will call
      your own filenames.  
   2. Make the additional file-display links to point to your own menu
      files which you store in the directory /home/my_dir/hybrow, say.
   3. Create your files in /home/my_dir/hybrow.

   Instead of or in addition to step B2, you might wish to display
   files with explicit path, in which case you can use a link like
      [@cat /usr/my_dir/special/my_file] 
   with the full path name without using the -s option.

   When you are using execute-only or execute-display or directory-browser
   links, and you are specifying commands, please make sure that the
   commands are in your PATH; if not, you must explicitly state the
   path, or substitute with a variable which you define in your personal
   .hybrowrc file in the directory specified by the -s option eg.

       [@/home/my_dir/bin/my_command]  or

       [@$my_variable/my_command] (and put this line :
                                  my_variable=/home/my_dir/bin
                                  in the .hybrowrc file in your directory
                                  specified by -s 
                                  eg. /home/my_dir/hybrow/.hybrowrc)

C. You wish to have a completely different menu hierarchy for yourself
   or your group.

   1. Make your command hybrow -s/home/my_dir/our_hybrow
   2. Make your own set of variables and put them in
      /home/my_dir/our_hybrow/.hybrowrc
   3. Make your own start file and put it in
      /home/my_dir/our_hybrow/start
   4. Make your own menu screens and files and put them in the directory
      /home/my_dir/our_hybrow
   
   ADVICE: It is best to make a copy of the files implemented by
   your system manager and start from there to make your own modifications,
   ie. use them as templates.
   REMINDER: Don't forget to make copies of the help files associated with
   hybrow, edit them and put them in your appropriate directory.

II. EDITING DYNAMICALLY FORMED MENUS
------------------------------------ 

Many HYBROW menu screens may be dynamically formed, and are not found
within a corresponding ASCII file in their entirety.  However,
they are stored temporarily within files in the temporary directory as
/tmp/hy* where * = a series of alphabets and numbers.

1. You can edit this menu (using "e") and save it as it is (since it belongs
   to you) in the current HYBROW session and HYBROW will redisplay it.
   However, upon exiting HYBROW, this /tmp/hy* file will be deleted
   and the edited contents will be lost.

2. You can save the /tmp/hy* as a permanent file into your own directory and
   make use of the above customization strategies to make it a more
   permanent feature of your own menu system.
