Very sketchy preliminary docs on new applescripting functionality.
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Jack Jansen
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@ -31,21 +31,30 @@ will tell Eudora to send queued mail, retrieve mail or quit. <p>
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There is a tool in the standard distribution that looks through a file
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for an 'AETE' or 'AEUT' resource, the internal representation of the
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AppleScript dictionary. This tool is called
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<CODE>gensuitemodule.py</CODE>, and lives in
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<CODE>Mac:scripts</CODE>. When we start it, it asks us for an input
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file and we point it to the Eudora Light executable. It starts parsing
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the AETE resource, and for each AppleEvent suite it finds it prompts
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us for the filename of the resulting python module. Remember to change
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folders for the first module, you don't want to clutter up the Eudora
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folder with your python interfaces. If you want to skip a suite you
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press cancel and the process continues with the next suite. In the
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case of Eudora, you do <EM>not</EM> want to generate the Required
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suite, because it will be empty. AppleScript understands that an empty
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suite means "incorporate the whole standard suite by this name",
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<CODE>gensuitemodule.py</CODE>, and lives in <CODE>Mac:scripts</CODE>.
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When we start it, it asks us for an input file and we point it to the
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Eudora Light executable. It starts parsing the AETE resource, and for
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each AppleEvent suite it finds it prompts us for the filename of the
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resulting python module. Remember to change folders for the first
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module, you don't want to clutter up the Eudora folder with your python
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interfaces. If you want to skip a suite you press cancel and the process
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continues with the next suite. In the case of Eudora, you do
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<EM>not</EM> want to generate the Required and Standard suites, because
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they are identical to the standard ones which are pregenerated (and
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empty in the eudora binary). AppleScript understands that an empty suite
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means "incorporate the whole standard suite by this name",
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gensuitemodule does not currently understand this. Creating the empty
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<CODE>Required_Suite.py</CODE> would hide the correct module of that
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name from our application. <p>
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Gensuitemodule may ask you questions like "Where is enum 'xyz ' declared?".
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For the first time, cancel out of this dialog after taking down the
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enum (or class or prop) name. After you've created all the suites look
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for these codes, in the suites generated here and in the standard suites.
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If you've found them all run gensuitemodule again and point it to the right
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file for each declaration. Gensuitemodule will generate the imports to make the
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reference work. <p>
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<BLOCKQUOTE>
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Time for a sidebar. If you want to re-create
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<CODE>Required_Suite.py</CODE> or one of the other standard modules
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@ -61,19 +70,9 @@ Let's glance at the <A
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HREF="scripting/Eudora_Suite.py">Eudora_Suite.py</A> just created. You
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may want to open Script Editor alongside, and have a look at how it
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interprets the dictionary. EudoraSuite.py starts with some
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boilerplate, then come some dictionaries implementing the OSA
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Enumerations, then a big class definition with methods for each
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AppleScript Verb and finally some comments. The Enumerations we will
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skip, it suffices to know that whenever you have to pass an enumerator
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to a method you can pass the english name and don't have to bother
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with the 4-letter type code. So, you can say
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<CODE><PRE>
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eudora.notice(occurrence="mail_arrives")
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</PRE></CODE>
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instead of the rather more cryptic
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<CODE><PRE>
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eudora.notice(occurrence="wArv")
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</PRE></CODE>
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boilerplate, then a big class definition with methods for each
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AppleScript Verb, then some small class definitions and then some dictionary
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initializations. <p>
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The <CODE>Eudora_Suite</CODE> class is the bulk of the code
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generated. For each verb it contains a method. Each method knows what
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@ -90,16 +89,38 @@ The other thing you notice is that each method calls
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to provide it by subclassing or multiple inheritance, as we shall see
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later. <p>
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The module ends with some comments. Sadly, gensuitemodule is not yet
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able to turn the Object Specifiers into reasonable Python code. For
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now, if you need object specifiers, you will have to use the routines
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defined in <CODE>aetools.py</CODE> (and <CODE>aetypes.py</CODE>, which
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it incorporates). You use these in the form <CODE>aetools.Word(10,
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After the big class we get a number of little class declarations. These
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declarations are for the (appleevent) classes and properties in the suite.
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They allow you to create object IDs, which can then be passed to the verbs.
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For instance, to get the name of the sender of the first message in mailbox
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inbox you would use <code>mailbox("inbox").message(1).sender</code>. It is
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also possible to specify this as <code>sender(message(1, mailbox("inbox")))</code>,
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which is sometimes needed because these classes don't inherit correctly
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from baseclasses, so you may have to use a class or property from another suite. <p>
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<blockquote>
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There are also some older object specifiers for standard objects in aetools.
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You use these in the form <CODE>aetools.Word(10,
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aetools.Document(1))</CODE> where the corresponding AppleScript
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terminology would be <CODE>word 10 of the first
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document</CODE>. Examine the two modules mentioned above along with
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the comments at the end of your suite module if you need to create
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more than the standard object specifiers. <p>
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more than the standard object specifiers.
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</blockquote>
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Next we get the enumeration dictionaries, which allow you to pass
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english names as arguments to verbs, so you don't have to bother with the 4-letter
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type code. So, you can say
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<CODE><PRE>
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eudora.notice(occurrence="mail_arrives")
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</PRE></CODE>
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instead of the rather more cryptic
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<CODE><PRE>
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eudora.notice(occurrence="wArv")
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</PRE></CODE><p>
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Finally, we get the "table of contents" of the module, listing all classes and such
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by code, which is used by gensuitemodule. <p>
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<H2>Using a Python suite module</H2>
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@ -119,8 +140,8 @@ all, the heart of our program looks like this:
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<CODE><PRE>
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import Eudora_Suite, Required_Suite, aetools
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class Eudora(aetools.TalkTo, Required_Suite.Required_Suite, \
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Eudora_Suite.Eudora_Suite):
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class Eudora(Eudora_Suite.Eudora_Suite, Required_Suite.Required_Suite, \
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aetools.TalkTo):
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pass
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</PRE></CODE>
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