Re: Tell Blocks Considered Harmful (was Re: open for access)
Re: Tell Blocks Considered Harmful (was Re: open for access)
- Subject: Re: Tell Blocks Considered Harmful (was Re: open for access)
- From: "J. Stewart" <email@hidden>
- Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2008 09:51:27 -0500
On 12/14/08 at 1:53 PM, Paul Berkowitz <email@hidden>
spake thusly:
2. The dialog is modal and prevents the user from interacting with
the target application.
I'd be sad to see that go.
Why is that important for your scripts? Is it critical for correct
operation or just nice-to-have? Do you need to be able to prevent the
user from interacting with the target application?
Yes, exactly. display dialogs need an answer before the script can move on;
and in many cases allowing the user to modify things between the question
and answer would mess everything up. In other cases, with complex apps that
do hundreds of things, 99% of which would not interfere with the script, it
might be a convenience to the user to be able to take care of something
unrelated to the script. But the minor inconvenience of forcing him to
answer the question first as opposed to messing up the script leading, who
knows, to possible data loss is certainly worth preserving.
My 2¢ even if slightly off topic.
The thing that bothers me about the UI dialogs in the
StandardAdditions.osax is that in most cases they lack one or
both of the following parameters. Where they display is of
secondary importance.
1. giving up after
2. scriptable default behavior of some sort
Both of these exist for display dialog and display alert, why
not the rest?
Here is the list I'm talking about:
choose application - none
choose file - has "default location"
choose file name - has "default location"
choose folder - none
choose from list - has "default items"
choose remote application - none
choose URL - none
I can think of no good reason the script's author or end user
shouldn't be able to modify the behavior of these dialogs
according to need.
My morning launch is heavily scripted and I can certainly write
a linear script that will handle a default launch but what
happens if I need to change the process on the fly as I
frequently need to do. In order to use any of the above then I
must always remain at the computer, I can't go get my coffee or
shave or any of the other things I must do until the last dialog
is answered. In a work environment I should think the ability to
have these dialogs accept default answers and continue the
script's execution would be most desirable.
John
P.S. Yeah, I know, go file a feature request!
--
Naturally, the common people don't want war, but after all, it
is the leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it is
always a simple matter to drag people along whether it is a
democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a
communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always
be brought to the bidding of the leaders. This is easy. All you
have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce
the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to
danger. It works the same in every country. -Hermann Goering
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