Re: Hacking unfinished programs
Re: Hacking unfinished programs
- Subject: Re: Hacking unfinished programs
- From: email@hidden (Michael Sullivan)
- Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 18:49:03 -0500
- Organization: Business Card Express of Connecticut
>
Quick question:
>
If a program that does have AppleScript implementation has things in
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it's dictionary that just were never implemented in the actual
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program, is it possible to fix that? For instance Apple's QTVR
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Authoring Studio has an entry in it's dictionary for "close":
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close : Close an object
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close reference -- the objects to close
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[saving yes/no/ask] -- specifies whether or not changes should be
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saved before closing
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[in alias] -- the file in which to save the object
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But it doesn't actually work. Can I fix this myself? Where would I
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look for a program that would let me edit other programs?
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Am I just in way over my head here?
Almost certainly. You can't just edit programs. You have to get the
code, make the modifications, and recompile them. Test. Find bugs, go
back to step 1. Repeat ad nauseam.
You'd use a whatever language the original program was written in, such
as C++, Obj-C, C, Pascal, etc. If you don't have access to the original
source code (which you won't for most mac programs that you didn't
write), or an SDK from the original developer, you would need to be a
*far* better hacker than I ever intend to be to make changes to program
behavior not anticipated in the original design via resource flags.
The canonical way to script unscriptable apps is via event control
(macro) programs, like OneClick, Keyquencer, Prefab Player, or
QuickKeys.
Michael
--
Michael Sullivan email@hidden
Business Card Express of Connecticut Thermographers to the Trade
"You hate your job -- why didn't you say so? There's a support group
for that. It's called everybody; they meet at the bar." -Drew Carey