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Re: Building applescript records with lists, accessing applescript records with strings
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Re: Building applescript records with lists, accessing applescript records with strings


  • Subject: Re: Building applescript records with lists, accessing applescript records with strings
  • From: has <email@hidden>
  • Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2005 10:29:19 +0000

Malcolm Fitzgerald wrote:

Two of the FAQs on this list are, "How do I build an applescript record
from a list?" and "How do I coerce a string to a variable?".

When folk ask "How do I build an applescript record from a list?", ninety-nine times out of a hundred what they actually want is a dynamic, unordered list structure that stores values by arbitrary key: a dictionary, hash or associative list. BTW, there was a very good discussion of this just last week: see the thread titled "definition list recommendations?".


AppleScript doesn't have a built-in dictionary type, but there are some reasonable third-party alternatives available, e.g. in AppleMods Types library <http://applemods.sourceforge.net/>. For example, Jason Bourque's item pricing problem demands a dynamic key-value dictionary or associative list object. Hacking up a record to use as an ersatz dictionary is about the worst solution: there's absolutely no reason to use a badly faked dictionary object when you can use a real one instead.

...

On a few occasions it does become necessary to manipulate record properties at runtime, for example, when an application or osax returns/requires a record with arbitrary property names; e.g. LNS's XMLTools, which stores XML tag attributes as records. (That's generally poor design on the application/osax's part, but sometimes you just have to work with what you've got.) LNS produce a free List & Record Tools osax which is probably the easiest way to manipulate records this way.

If you really _must_ go the vanilla code generator route, there's a much more robust version on my site <http://freespace.virgin.net/hamish.sanderson/Record.sit>. (The only thing worse than evil code generators is completely unsafe and unreliable evil code generators, which most folks' are.) But these are really tools of last resort, and not something any decent, civilised AppleScripter should need or want to touch them with a ten-foot pole.

HTH

has
--
http://freespace.virgin.net/hamish.sanderson/
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