Re: Good uses for Apple Data Detectors
Re: Good uses for Apple Data Detectors
- Subject: Re: Good uses for Apple Data Detectors
- From: Bill Cheeseman <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 23 Jan 2001 14:01:49 -0500
on 1/23/01 11:07 AM, Bourque, Jason at email@hidden wrote:
>
What are some good uses for Apple Data Detectors?
Apple has published Internet "detectors" and geography detectors, and it
once promised currency detectors. Control-click on any text passage that
contains within it one or more URLs, cities or states, and the contextual
menu that pops up will include each detected item in the selection as a
separate menu item. What happens when you select one of the items depends on
the "actions" you have installed using the ADD control panel. For example,
launch your web browser and go to that site.
I have written (but never distributed) an AppleScript documentation system
that uses ADD. The detector I wrote recognizes all AppleScript keywords.
Select an entire script in your script editor, Control-click, and you get a
list of all the keywords in the script. Select one of them, and an Apple
Help file opens describing the keyword with examples of its usage. It's
really a very useful documentation system. I never completed it because
Apple Data Detectors are no longer really supported and their future is
uncertain, at best.
Documentation systems for other subjects could be written the same way: for
stamp collectors or whatever. And language dictionaries or translators. And,
say, zip code or area code recognizers. I never came up with any more
specific uses; I think the Internet detectors were the driving idea.
Writing a detector that works like a glossary is really, really easy.
Writing more complex detectors is a little more work.
I deeply wish that Apple would affirm full support for ADD.
-
Bill Cheeseman, Quechee, Vermont <
mailto:email@hidden>
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