Re: request for count value in record enumerated types

[Andrew Johnson <anj@aps.anl.gov>]

Jim Thomas wrote:
> Any chance of adding something like:

<patch snipped>

> to the .dbd->.h conversion so that there's a count of menu entries for each
> menu?

There might be, but we (Marty and I) are not sure how necessary it really 
is.  Can you explain why you need it, and how you'll work around its 
absence from the version of Base that you're currently using?

One way to get the number of choices from a menu definition at runtime is 
something like:

    #include "dbStaticLib.h"
..
    int count = dbFindMenu(pdbbase, "menuName")->nChoice;

My guess is that if we accept it we would add your suggestion to R3.14 but 
not R3.13.  We'd probably also add equivalent code to dbToMenuTypeH.c for 
uniformity.

We're trying to avoid adding stuff that "might be useful" but which isn't 
actually needed in practice.  I'm also slightly concerned about the 
generated name clashing with some existing menu that already defines a 
<menuName>_Count choice, although there aren't any in Base so it probably 
wouldn't be a problem.

- Andrew
--
"Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans." - John Lennon