On Thu, 1 May 2003, Anthony Adachi wrote:

> I was perusing the System Browser and came across an
> number of AppleScript classes under the
> VMConstruction-Applescript category. What are these
> for? Are they really only intended to be used by those
> maintaining Squeak and who are building the VM?

Nope.  Heck, I didn't even know that's what it was used for!  I use
AppleScript for a bunch of stuff from within Squeak for integration with
the Mac OS.  E.g., since I'm the kind of whacko who likes to run Squeak
fullscreen and use it for most of my environment, I wrote some code that
gave me a menu of OS X apps running and web browser windows, so that I
could easily switch between OmniWeb and Squeak without having to leave the
Squeak experience entirely.

> Reading the source code It seems that one can compile
> and execute scripts from within Squeak. How does the
> performance of executing such scripts compare to
> compiled AppleScripts running in the Finder? With
> these or any third party projects can the scripts
> within Squeak be pre-compiled (as opposed to compiling
> them at run-time) so that they run faster?

No clue... All the AppleScripting I do from within Squeak is pretty
simple, I don't use it for doing math or anything computationally
intensive.

> In addition, I'm wondering in what capacity is it
> possible to communicate with AppleScripts which exist
> outside of the Squeak image?

In what way?  With the Applescript class in Squeak, you basically get one
core action: Applescript>>#doIt:, which evaluates an AppleScript string.
You pass the doIt: method regular AppleScript code- it's not like using an
AppleEvents package with Perl, TCL, etc...  You can use it for anything
you'd have other AS scripts for, including calling other AppleScripts.

The idea is that you evalate Applescript doIt: 'somecode goes here' and
what is returned from AppleScript is returned to you in a string.  If you
ask it what 4+4 is, you get a string with '8'; if you ask it what the
names of the Safari windows are, you get an AppleScript-formatted literal
array containing the window titles. You can then parse this string or do
whatever you need to do to get at the info.

> For instance, as a result of compiling and executing a
> script within Squeak, can info be sent back from a
> script (or scriptable application) existing outside of
> the Squeak image. i.e.- What's the level of
> interaction possible? Can results be returned from
> calls to individual handlers of a script/script
> objects? Or from individual commands or property
> access attempts sent to an application?

Whatever is returned by AppleScript ends up back in Squeak. This return
string can come from AppleScript or the app being scripted.

There is no existing ways for certain AppleScript messages to be delegated
to certain handlers, but setting something like that wouldn't be all that
complex.  The way it works now is that whenever the AS code chunk returns,
the return string is given to whatever is taking the result of
(Applescript doIt: someCode).  Simple as that.

> Moreover, is it possible to script Squeak objects with
> AppleScript? Apparently, Apple has implemented hooks
> in it's version of Java so that one can script Java
> applications. In a similar manner, I was wondering if
> it were possible to script Squeak projects or objects
> with compiled AppleScripts? In other words,
> communicate with the squeak environment from outside
> using AppleScript?

I don't think there is anyway currently to have AppleScript call into
Squeak as-is.  *However,* using the XML-RPC or SOAP stuff that comes with
the OS X version of AppleScript and XML-RPC or SOAP classes easily
installed through SqueakMap, you could write a framework for scripting
apps that is callable through XML-RPC or SOAP.  If your application
already had the ability to be scripted through another means, adding
XML-RPC or SOAP would be pretty easy to do, a fairly simple wrap job
provided your app scripting API didn't need to return complex squeak
objects.

Regards,
Aaron

  Aaron Reichow  ::  UMD ACM Pres  ::  http://www.d.umn.edu/~reic0024/
  "civilization is a limitless multiplication of
                unnecessary necessities."                :: mark twain