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

[Ronald O. <ous...@ci...>]

On Sunday, Mar 2, 2003, at 12:00 Europe/Amsterdam, Peter Montagner 
wrote:

>
> 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.

If you want to help out with this I'd suggest asking around on the 
macpython list, the subscribers there are more likely to know about 
using OSA from Python. I'd say a function like the getApp you propose 
would be a usefull addition, but that's from someone that hasn't used 
OSA before.

Ronald