[OS X TeX] Re: Flashmode-Alpha Trial version

[Claus Gerhardt]

Joachim,

Thanks for the information. I did know about the DoScript 
constructions, but was unable to find the tcl equivalents for the 
commands I needed.

The two commands, you gave, work as advertised and knowing them would 
have saved me a couple of hours. It would be helpful, if the Alpha 
distribution, or the Alpha homepage for that matter, would contain a 
link to a corresponding "dictionary".

Claus

On Jan 5, 2005, at 11:55, Joachim Kock wrote:

>> A trial version of Flashmode-Alpha, for the combination
>> AlphaX/TeXniscope, can be downloaded from
>> http://www.math.uni-heidelberg.de/studinfo/gerhardt/tex/
>
> Hello Claus,
>
> thank you for conducting these interesting experiments.  I think we are
> many that are excited about these developments.  It is admirable that 
> you
> make an effort to make this work in Alpha too, although it seems that 
> you
> don't know much about Alpha.
>
>> Please, read the instructions!
>
> Yes, that is always good advice.  It goes for Alpha too!  :-)
>
>> The developers of AlphaX obviously never thought that AlphaX itsself
>> might be the target of Applescripts.
>
> (Wir sind gewohnt das die Mennschen verhöhnen was sie nicht verstehen.)
>
>> Alpha's Applescript dictionary contains only a minimal amount of 
>> classes
>> and commands; fortunately, it understands the 'save' command, which is
>> infinitely more than Emacs' knowledge of Applescript commands, and 
>> enough
>> for producing a working version of Flashmode.
>
> In addition to a couple of required classes and commands, Alpha sports
> only one applescript command (quite a minimal set, indeed):
>
>     DoScript
>
> This command allows for the execution of *any* Tcl script or command.
> Hence *every* existing or imaginable command in Alpha, including all 
> menu
> items, keystrokes, event hooks, advanced searches and filter actions,
> preference settings, can be executed via an applescript.  This makes 
> Alpha
> one of the most scriptable of all applications, and this design is
> extremely flexible and powerful.  No need to update a dictionary each 
> time
> a command is added; user-defined Alpha commands are immediately 
> callable
> through AppleScripts too.  I think the developers *did* design Alpha 
> to be
> a target for AppleScripts!
>
>
>> It would be more satisfactory, if the following Applescript commands
>> (and properties) could be implemented in AlphaX (considered only as
>> target)
>
> I don't think it would be more satisfactory to reinvent the wheel like
> this for every scripting language.  Alpha is written in Tcl and every
> Tcl command can be executed directly.  What do you need more?
>
>
>> 1. get path of front document --unix path
>
> simply do
>
>     DoScript "win::Current"
>
>
>> 2. if document texName is modified then
>
> simply do
>
>     DoScript "win::getInfo texName dirty"
>
> this will return 1 or 0 (for true or false).
>
>
> If you want to avoid applescripts altogether (but I don't think you 
> would,
> since you are an expert in Applescript), you can also do all this over 
> a
> socket.  This is perhaps the preferred way for unix applications to
> communicate with Alpha.
>
> Finally there is the obvious alternative of writing the whole flash
> mechanism in pure Tcl and do everything entirely from within Alpha.  I 
> did
> some naive experiments with this a long time ago, but decided that I 
> would
> rather wait until I upgrade to something faster than my current iBook
> 500MHz.  But perhaps time is ripe to take up the challenge again...
>
>
> Thanks again for your work.  If you have further questions or doubts,
> don't hesitate to ask.
>
> Cheers,
> Joachim.
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
> Joachim Kock <kock at mat.uab.es>
> Departament de Matemàtiques -- Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
> Edifici C -- 08193 Bellaterra (Barcelona) -- ESPANYA
> Phone: +34 93 581 32 50        Fax: +34 93 581 27 90
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
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