When trying to implement menus dynamically in a C++ application of mine without resource files with an interface like the one below, I ran into a problem:
Menu menu_main__ = {
Menu("File", {
Menu("Save Configuration", {}),
Menu("Save Configuration As...", {}),
Menu(nullptr, {}),
Menu("Something", {
Menu("Yay!", {})
})
}),
Keybutter::Menu("Help", {
Menu("Contents", {}),
Menu(nullptr, {}),
Menu("About", {}),
})
};
Here's are constructors for Menu-class:
Menu(Menu const& menu_) = default;
Menu(Menu&& menu_) = default;
Menu(std::initializer_list<Menu>&& menus_sub__);
Menu(std::nullptr_t const&, std::initializer_list<Menu>&& menus_sub_);
Menu(std::string&& name_, std::initializer_list<Menu>&& menus_sub_);
Now, I figured the only feasible way to implement menu creation is to use recursion. I ended up using lambda recursion inside my Window-class, like this:
std::vector<Menu> menus;
static unsigned int id_menu_sub = 0;
std::function<void (HMENU const&, std::string const&, std::vector<Menu> const&)> create_menus_sub__;
create_menus_sub__ = [&](HMENU const& menu_, std::string const& name_menu_, std::vector<Menu> const& menu_sub_) -> void{
if(menu_sub_.empty()){
return;
}
else{
HMENU&& menu_sub__ = CreatePopupMenu();
for(unsigned int i__ = 0; i__ < menu_sub_.size(); ++i__){
if(menu_sub_[i__].menus_sub().empty()){
if(menu_sub_[i__].name.empty()){
AppendMenu(menu_sub__, MF_SEPARATOR, ++id_menu_sub, NULL);
}
else{
AppendMenu(menu_sub__, (menu_sub_[i__].menus_sub().empty()) ? MF_STRING : MF_POPUP | MF_STRING, ++id_menu_sub, menu_sub_[i__].name.c_str());
}
}
else{
create_menus_sub__(menu_, menu_sub_[i__].name, menu_sub_[i__].menus_sub());
}
}
AppendMenu(menu_, MF_POPUP | MF_STRING, reinterpret_cast<UINT>(menu_sub__), name_menu_.c_str());
}
};
for(unsigned int i__ = 0; i__ < menus.size(); ++i__){
HMENU&& menu__ = CreateMenu();
create_menus_sub__(menu__, menus[i__].name, menus[i__].menus_sub());
SetMenu(handle_window, menu__);
}
Turned out it did not work as expected. Here is the result:
"Something", instead of being a menu item in "File", is now in wrong location. This was my attempt to create menus dynamically with a good, but somewhat questionable, C++ interface. How can I one use recursion to make menus recursively? How can my code be fixed? I hope I gave enough information.