Re: path to frontmost application: bug in AS 1.9.3?
Re: path to frontmost application: bug in AS 1.9.3?
- Subject: Re: path to frontmost application: bug in AS 1.9.3?
- From: Paul Berkowitz <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 01 Oct 2004 04:49:57 -0700
Title: Re: path to frontmost application: bug in AS 1.9.3?
On 9/30/04 11:11 PM, "Donald Hall" <email@hidden> wrote:
I have a script with an idle handler containing the following statement:
set frontProc to name of (info for (path to frontmost application))
In AS 1.9.3, OS 10.3.5, when the screen saver is running this statement does not give the expected result of "ScreenSaverEngine", but rather the name of the application that was frontmost just prior to the screen saver starting. In Jaguar the statement gave the expected result.
In Panther if instead of the above statement I use:
tell application "Finder" to set frontProc to name of every process whose frontmost is true
frontProc is set to "ScreenSaverEngine" as expected.
Is this a bug or a feature?
Is there a time penalty for using the Finder, or is there another way to get the name of the frontmost application?
I suspect that this is related to the documented change (Release Notes) of AppleScript 1.9.2 (OS 10.3):
"
Scripts that use the path to frontmost application command will now get the correct path when run from the Script Menu menu extra. Previously, the command would return the path to System Events. [3084984]
"
By referring to the new implementation as "the correct path" the implication is that the former result which returned the name of the faceless background application running the script (System Events) should never be considered frontmost even though it was running the script. That makes sense to me. Probably the Screen Saver is also not to be considered frontmost in the sense of a regular application. Or else this was an unintentional result of the change and should be corrected.
As I recall, 'path to current application' will still get you System Events in that context. See what happens if you try 'current application'.
I'm not quite sure why you refer to a "time penalty" for the Finder. Surely it doesn't change if you do nothing for 3 minutes (leaving Screen Saver in place)? It's a difference between the 'frontmost application ' determined by the standard addition and frontmost process determined by the Finder. (You probably should be using System Events, not the Finder, to get the frontmost process in any case.) Maybe there's meant to be a difference, or maybe one of them is wrong.
--
Paul Berkowitz
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