[development] Rendering Contextual Menus

[Greenman]

How do I theme a menu of options for a specific context?

I would like to create a menu that shows items relative to a group. I
don't want to mix these in with tasks ( or actions ), and would like
to use standard menu.inc functionality. However, it feels like it is
not possible to use the standard menu functionality for items that
contain placeholders.

I can easily create my own item list and render that as a menu, but it
feels like duplication of work. I have to do access checks and
hierarchy stuff that feels unnecessary. It looks like I have to
duplicate the functionality of  "menu_local_tasks" but just extract
normal items.

I am not really trying to have this menu managed by the menu module, I
am planning to load and theme it myself. I am working with D7, but I
don't think it would be too different to D6 (apart from the
local_actions)

This has been bugging me for a while, and I have finally given in and
decided to ask. I can't help feeling I am missing something, and would
love to have end my ignorance.

I am going to send this now.
Peter