Re: Non-modal information window showing progress?
Re: Non-modal information window showing progress?
- Subject: Re: Non-modal information window showing progress?
- From: Harald E Brandt <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2001 00:37:14 +0200
+--> email@hidden wrote 01-04-24:
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On Monday, April 23, 2001, at 04:34 PM, Harald E Brandt wrote:
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> I want to display a progress window that says which file is currently being
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> processed. How can I do that??
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> It should be like a progress bar, but with some text or numbers that are
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> updated as the script proceeds.
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There are a number of application and Scripting Addition options.
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"Transcript", "AppleScript Output", and "Message Window" are the application
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solutions. All are easy to script, and provide slightly different displays.
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Transcript is a scrolling text window that looks like a log file...
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Message Window displays a floating window with a single message that changes...
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AppleScript Output is also a floating window, but scrolls the text...
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Also, the Scripting Addition "Akua Sweets" has "display info" and "display
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progress" commands...
+--
Thank you *really* for the excellent "tutorial/review" of various options and your own experiences & pros & cons with them!! That was helpful for me!
Others suggested Progress Bar, which is a 68k application.
And several suggested Dialog Director, which is an osax (68k/ppc?)
Here's my miniature "review":
For the progress thing I tried Progress Bar, Akua Sweets (display progress), and lastly Dialog Director.
-- The simplest thing is the 68k application Progress Bar, but it *really* looks old! And it really is: --from november 1993!! Oh dear! It requires several lines of nested tell code (2 tell levels deep) and is therefore not at all succinct. It is free, but not for companies selling software and who also wants to use this app as part of the package.
-- Akua Sweets osax (June 2000) had the nicest appearance, and I did not at all find it harder to work with - on the contrary, I found it really easy. Its graphical appearance is really nice and modern. It even automatically computes and displays estimated remaining time! The code needed is really succinct, so it won't clutter the rest of the script. The latest info on the web (in red) says it really is Freeware, i.e not only for personal usage as before. However, as freeware, it will remain 68k code, and the upcoming version will be shareware, and only registered users get PPC!
-- Dialog Director (February 1998) is probably nice, it looks ok, but for my purpose, seems to be enormous overkill and immensely much more complicated to get simple results with. It is free, even for those selling software! Don't know if it's 68k or PPC
-- For the information log purpose, I tried AppleScript Output (May 2000) which was easy and did a really good job. The AppleScript Output just seems perfect for showing a log of many items or issues! It is PPC, and is completely free! Great and easy!
-- I also tried Akua Sweets display info, but in this case, I found the Akua thing troublesome and cumbersome. I could never make the close box work for som reason, and it doesn't scroll. It does, however, have other fancy features, but I don't need those.
The last comment concerns the future: Since I, like many others, will move on to Mac OS X, probably later this year, and adapt my scripts to it, I have concerns about some of the above. I guess 68k stuff is simply out if I want to stay in Mac OS X. That rules out much of the above!
And If I want to let others use my scripts, then Akua Sweets, although it has the nicest progress bar, will be a problem since the Mac OS X version will probably not be free, unless he changes his mind(?)
Well this was my little "review".
With the Best Regards,
______heb________________________________________________________________
Harald E Brandt email@hidden PGP/MIME aware
http://heb.surf.to