[Pythonmac-SIG] appscript questions

[has]

Nicholas Riley wrote:

> I agree - if the app quits, it should stay quit.  Sometimes when I'm
> trying to abort a script I quit an app that's being controlled, and to
> see it relaunch over and over and over again... aaargh.

OK. Plan is that:

1. run() and launch() will be allowed to relaunch an application  
that's been quit; any other event will result in an error. I've not  
decided if open() should also be given special rights; any preferences?

2. When appscript launches an app, a 'run' event is automatically  
sent (part of the normal LaunchApplication behaviour) except where  
the user calls launch() first, in which a 'launch' (no-op) event is  
sent instead.


>> - Do away with ASTS completely
>
> I'd say to do the first one, and if you get complaints, move to the
> second one.  I got very confused about the role of ASTS in remote
> scripting myself (you may remember an email I sent you that effect
> :-), and at least in my case I don't use appscript for small scripts,
> I use it primarily for faceless background apps, so it wouldn't
> matter.

OK, ASTS is gone. I've got a plan for implementing a file-based  
external cache should it be needed, but we'll see how the next  
release goes. If folk find cold starts are still noticably slow they  
can let me know.


>> 3. Should appscript's built-in help() use textwrap to automatically
>> wrap long lines to fit in a standard 80-column terminal window?
>
> How about wrapping to the terminal width, whatever it happens to be?

I've left things as-is (i.e. Terminal, etc. can do their own line  
wrapping).


-------
Ronald Oussoren wrote:

>> p.s. If anyone'd like to help me out a bit, I'd really like to get
>> all the manuals into the standard Python documentation format now.
>
> Why do you want to do that?  You have to use special tools to  
> convert that to a useable format.

If the Python format sucks to use I'll happily take suggestions for a  
better one. Any decent documentation authoring/generation system will  
do. Don't much mind what it is as long as it's easy to use and  
generates good looking HTML and (ideally) man pages with auto- 
generated navigation links in the HMTL version (indexing would also  
be nice, though not required).


-------
Dethe Elza wrote:

> And if you're trying to get docs into the standard library, those  
> folks are perfectly willing to take plaintext documentation and  
> dress it up in LaTeX themselves.

Nope, no plans to put appscript into the standard library; like Bob,  
I'd rather see the Mac-specific stuff moved out.


Thanks,

has
-- 
http://freespace.virgin.net/hamish.sanderson/