CHAPTER 18Writing Scripts for Graphical Desktops
Over the years, shell scripts have acquired a reputation for being dull and boring. This doesn't have to be the case, however, if you plan on running your scripts in a graphical environment. There are plenty of ways to interact with your script user that don't rely on the read and echo statements. This chapter dives into a few methods you can use to add life to your interactive scripts so that they don't look so old-fashioned.
Creating Text Menus
The most common way to create an interactive shell script is to utilize a menu. Offering your users a choice of various options helps guide them through what the script can and can't do.
Menu scripts usually clear the display area and then show a list of available options. The user can select an option by pressing an associated letter or number assigned to each option. Figure 18-1 shows the layout of a sample menu.
The core of a shell script menu is the case command (see Chapter 12, “Using Structured Commands”). The case command performs specific commands, depending on what character your user selects from the menu.
The following sections walk you through the steps you should follow to create a menu-based shell script.
Create the menu layout
The first step in creating a menu is, obviously, to determine what elements you want to appear in the menu and lay them out the way that you want them to appear.
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