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100 lines
3.9 KiB
TeX
100 lines
3.9 KiB
TeX
\chapter{MacPython OSA Modules \label{scripting}}
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Python has a fairly complete implementation of the Open Scripting
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Architecure (OSA, also commonly referred to as AppleScript), allowing
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you to control scriptable applications from your Python program,
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and with a fairly pythonic interface.
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For a description of the various components of AppleScript and OSA, and
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to get an understanding of the architecture and terminology, you should
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read Apple's documentation. The "Applescript Language Guide" explains
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the conceptual model and the terminology, and documents the standard
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suite. The "Open Scripting Architecture" document explains how to use
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OSA from an application programmers point of view. In the Apple Help
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Viewer these book sare located in the Developer Documentation, Core
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Technologies section.
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As an example of scripting an application, the following piece of
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AppleScript will get the name of the frontmost \program{Finder} window
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and print it:
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\begin{verbatim}
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tell application "Finder"
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get name of window 1
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end tell
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\end{verbatim}
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In Python, the following code fragment will do the same:
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\begin{verbatim}
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import Finder
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f = Finder.Finder()
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print f.get(f.window(1).name)
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\end{verbatim}
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As distributed the Python library includes packages that implement the
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standard suites, plus packages that interface to a small number of
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common applications.
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To send AppleEvents to an application you must first create the Python
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package interfacing to the terminology of the application (what
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\program{Script Editor} calls the "Dictionary"). This can be done from
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within the \program{PythonIDE} or by running the
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\file{gensuitemodule.py} module as a standalone program from the command
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line.
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The generated output is a package with a number of modules, one for
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every suite used in the program plus an \module{__init__} module to glue
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it all together. The Python inheritance graph follows the AppleScript
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inheritance graph, so if a programs dictionary specifies that it
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includes support for the Standard Suite, but extends one or two verbs
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with extra arguments then the output suite will contain a module
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\module{Standard_Suite} that imports and re-exports everything from
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\module{StdSuites.Standard_Suite} but overrides the methods that have
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extra functionality. The output of \module{gensuitemodule} is pretty
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readable, and contains the documentation that was in the original
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AppleScript dictionary in Python docstrings, so reading it is a good
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source of documentation.
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The output package implements a main class with the same name as the
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package which contains all the AppleScript verbs as methods, with the
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direct object as the first argument and all optional parameters as
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keyword arguments. AppleScript classes are also implemented as Python
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classes, as are comparisons and all the other thingies.
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The main
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Python class implementing the verbs also allows access to the properties
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and elements declared in the AppleScript class "application". In the
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current release that is as far as the object orientation goes, so
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in the example above we need to use
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\code{f.get(f.window(1).name)} instead of the more Pythonic
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\code{f.window(1).name.get()}.
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If an AppleScript identifier is not a Python identifier the name is
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mangled according to a small number of rules:
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\begin{itemize}
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\item spaces are replaced with underscores
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\item other non-alphanumeric characters are replaced with
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\code{_xx_} where \code{xx} is the hexadecimal character value
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\item any Python reserved word gets an underscore appended
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\end{itemize}
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Python also has support for creating scriptable applications
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in Python, but
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The following modules are relevant to MacPython AppleScript support:
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\localmoduletable
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In addition, support modules have been pre-generated for
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\module{Finder}, \module{Terminal}, \module{Explorer},
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\module{Netscape}, \module{CodeWarrior}, \module{SystemEvents} and
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\module{StdSuites}.
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\input{libgensuitemodule}
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\input{libaetools}
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\input{libaepack}
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\input{libaetypes}
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\input{libminiae}
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