Re: [Pyobjc-dev] Python as an AppleScript Replacement?

[Peter M. <zig...@po...>]

On Sunday, March 2, 2003, at 08:29  PM, Donovan Preston wrote:

> On Saturday, March 1, 2003, at 11:46 PM, Peter Montagner wrote:
>> I may be missing something, but I thought that MacPython's OSA 
>> support was limited to the AppleEvents level. AppleEvents are the low 
>> level interapplication messaging protocol. The code would still be 
>> useful of course, but it wasn't what I was thinking of (unless I'm 
>> missing something). You *could* look up the 4 char AppleEvent codes 
>> for the call you want manually and then send them and wait for a 
>> response, but this is nothing like osa.getApp("Finder").empty_trash. 
>> It is the core though.
>
> You are missing something -- gensuitemodule.

I thought I must be.

> gensuitemodule is a script that writes the python code which creates 
> and sends the low level apple events for you, based on the high level 
> AppleScript terminology. There are a few issues (resolvable) with 
> using it to it's fullest potential on OS X:
>
> 1) It currently asks you to select an application with a Carbon file 
> picker. The Carbon file picker exposed by python requires a 
> type/creator mask, and won't let you pick application bundles.
>
> 2) It currently opens the resource fork of the application you chose 
> and reads the binary data off disk, which it then parses to discover 
> the english names and corresponding four character codes.
>
> The solution to these problems is to instead send the 'ascr' 'gdte' 
> event directly to the application you wish to create a python module 
> for, by addressing the application's four character code. If you are 
> attempting to talk to a bundled application, the four character code 
> is usually in the plist file inside the bundle.
>
> I have some experimental code which allows you to use gensuitemodule 
> much more effectively on OS X by using the above apple event; however, 
> I still haven't found a way to discover an application's four 
> character code automatically. Unfortunately I am working on it in my 
> spare time, but I will attempt to get a patch enhancing gensuitemodule 
> for use on OS X into the sourceforge patch tracker sometime this week.

Sounds like it does 90% of what I meant. IMHO, it would be more elegant 
to do it all on the fly with a call like osa.getApp("Finder"). After 
all, PyObjC doesn't generate a whole set of python modules to implement 
Cocoa, it does it all dynamically.

I'm just throwing this out as a suggestion BTW. I probably won't have 
the time to actually implement it. I might take a bash at it though. 
Thanks for your help.

Peter