[Pythonmac-SIG] appscript terminology caching #2

[Bob Ippolito]

On Oct 20, 2004, at 15:33, has wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> Spent a bit of time experimenting with the AppscriptTerminologyServer 
> idea. This uses a bundlebuilder-based FBA that can be left permanently 
> running to manage application terminology on behalf of appscript. I 
> can post a demo in a day or so if anyone wants to try it, but meantime 
> let's see what folks make of the general concept.
>
> Advantages:
> - 99.5% automatic
> - fast (terminology is parsed once, then internally cached [keys = 
> application paths/urls] for efficient reuse)
> - works with both local and remote apps (terminology servers can share 
> terminology data across the network)
> - language-agnostic (a Tcl/Perl/Ruby port of appscript could share the 
> existing terminology server)
>
> Disadvantages:
> - ATS must be running on every machine whose applications are being 
> scripted (installation issues? permissions issues? add to startup 
> items?)
> - if applications are updated, ATS cache must be manually cleared 
> (either by restarting ATS or sending it a 'reset' event)
> - currently OS X-only, so no remote scripting of OS9 machines unless 
> someone else wants to port it (not too worried as this is a shrinking 
> market and aem can always be used instead)
> - anything else? (in particular, any show-stoppers?)

appscript can install the FBA into its package, start it on on demand 
and just leave it running.  Perhaps it should have a time to live of a 
few hours, and the application terminologies probably should expire as 
well.

-bob