[OS X TeX] Damn Applescript!

[Jérôme Laurens]

Le 28 sept. 05, à 11:36, Stefan Walsen a écrit :

> Hi Herb,
>
> Herbert Schulz wrote:
>> Quite a while ago (using software time, not geological time here) I  
>> put together, with a bunch of help from this list, the following  
>> macro to ``Find Next "Tab"'' (where "Tab" is an embedded bullet  
>> character, `•', in a command completion)
> [...]
>> Recently I was asked to also delete that "Tab" character with an  
>> example where that would be handy (saves pressing Del in certain  
>> nested environments with my completions). I tried using the line
>> delete the selection of the front document
>> after the
>> set length...
>> line but that didn't work. I'm amazed at the strange, seemingly  
>> random, syntax of Applescript but maybe that's my age showing since  
>> I'm used to procedural languages (I loved C). Any help here would be  
>> appreciated! Supposedly `delete' is a verb in TeXShop's  Applescript  
>> dictionary and I'd think that `selection of the front document' would 
>>  be a decent noun so...
>
> Well, yes, but... you don't really want to delete the selection, do 
> you?  you want to delete its *content*. Otherwise, the next time you 
> say
>  'set offset of selection of front document to (firstOccurrence - 1)' 
> (or something similar), AppleScript says 'What selection? You mean the 
> one you just deleted? That's gone.' ;)

This is not applescript, this is how applescript support is implemented 
in texshop.
Don't blame Applescript.
A normal flow would be for end users to just suggest a "natural syntax" 
to developpers, and then developpers would make the effort to render 
this syntax available.

for example

select the first word of the third paragraph
delete the selection

seems natural for a non english speaking person.

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