0.4.2 — Menus

Released

The 0.4.2 release introduced the three-layer menubar model, menu module scaffolding, and a large batch of installer and release pipeline fixes.

Three-Layer Menubar Model

The HostMenu menubar is now structured as three permanent layers:

1. Built-in layer — the App cascade (Close Window / Quit), always first, built automatically by attach()

2. Project layer — app-wide cascades defined once in Host.py at startup; never cleared during normal use

3. Screen layer — cascades contributed by the active tab via configure_menu(menubar); all cleared automatically on tab deactivation

HostMenu API Changes

• set_project_items(items, label) — new method; appends one cascade to the project layer; calling multiple times adds multiple cascades; these persist across tab changes

• clear_project_items() — removes all project-layer cascades

• set_screen_items(items, label) — accumulates rather than replaces; calling multiple times adds multiple screen-layer cascades side by side

• clear_screen_items() — removes all accumulated screen cascades

• _project_labels: list[str] and _screen_labels: list[str] replace the single _screen_cascade / _screen_label pair

VIS add screen <name> menu <menuname>

• Screen.addMenu(menu) implemented (was a stub)

• Creates modules/<screen>/m_<menuname>.py with a configure_menu(menubar) function pre-filled with a commented cascade template

• If modules/<screen>/m_<screenname>.py (hooks module) already exists and does not define configure_menu, a delegation function is appended automatically

• If configure_menu already exists, import instructions are added as comments for manual wiring

Installer & Release Fixes

• Replaced from tkinter import * with import tkinter as tk in Installer.py (wildcard import shadowed all())

• Fixed shortcut(): stale loop variable and nonexistent user_desktop_dir()

• Removed stale i_file.close() in makechecks

• Fixed extal(): only chmod +x actual binaries on Linux

• Replaced os.mkdir with os.makedirs(exist_ok=True) in adjacents()

• Deduplicated installables list

• Replaced source.index(i) with enumerate in makechecks

• Added archive.close() calls in quiet mode exit and GUI close button

• Fixed prefix matching in extraction to prevent false matches

• Fixed _internal filter to use trailing slash

• Fixed previous() crash via global next_btn

• Replaced four redundant extraction loops with single-pass install + progress bar

• Added version display in installer header and next to checkboxes

• Fixed binstall() to take separate selected_screens parameter

• Replaced manual argument parsing with ArgHandler; added --Help, --Path, --Desktop flags

• --Quiet with no screen names now defaults to installing all screens

• Added binaries.zip existence check with user-friendly error

• Removed unused shutil import

Release Pipeline Fixes

• Fixed newVersion(): compared Version object vs string

• Added user confirmation prompt in newVersion() before applying a version change

• Re-enabled newVersion() call in release() (was commented out)

• Collapsed duplicated path logic in clean()

• Removed os.chdir() from release()

Cached Installer Builds

• _Release.py no longer runs PyInstaller for the installer on every release; the base installer exe is compiled once and cached in .VIS/cache/

• SHA-256 hash of Installer.py + icon file stored alongside the cache; recompiled only when source or icon changes

• Installer.py tries self-contained mode first (sys.frozen + ZipFile(sys.executable)), falls back to external binaries.zip

Planned

• Auto-launch after install — optional checkbox on the completion page