Re: on blocking target applications' GUIs (was Re: Tell Blocks Considered Harmful)
Re: on blocking target applications' GUIs (was Re: Tell Blocks Considered Harmful)
- Subject: Re: on blocking target applications' GUIs (was Re: Tell Blocks Considered Harmful)
- From: Ed Stockly <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2008 13:43:05 -0800
For example, I have a script launched from the finder that
downloads a pic through Transmit, open it in Photoshop, save it a
new file/format then open place it in a new quark document. It
could be launched from a script menu, but that wouldn't offer any
advantage. I certainly wouldn't want to have to return to the
finder, or whichever app launched the script, each time I display a
dialog.
If you keep your script applet frontmost, the user will be able to
stop it without fighting with your script activating applications.
Do you usually find it necessary to bring applications to the front
while controlling them from another process? Note I said "usually".
How much of the time is it a requirement?
I almost never leave my applet or droplet to be frontmost or to
display dialogs. There is no purpose for doing that. An applet or a
droplet has no window or anything I can display while the script is
running. A progress bar would be nice, but there is nothing. In the
above example users use the on-screen display to gage progress. If
Transmit is frontmost, the script is just starting, if the Quark
document is open it's nearly finished. If the document is closed, the
folder is open in the center of the screen with the document's icon
selected, the script is finished. The script looks better if it
activates another window. Many of my scripts don't just activate apps
they also position the windows on the screen so the user can see
several apps at once, and get an idea what's happening (and how much
work the script is saving, that's important).
Just activating an app and having the script function in full view
discourages user interference.
Some apps run faster when they are frontmost and being scripted (some
run slower).
Also, some apps (Adobe) have user interface items that I can use in my
scripts I mentioned this before but you dismissed it as a side issue,
but it's not. I don't want to activate InDesign, do some stuff,
display its UI elements, then go back to my applet and display its UI
elements then go back to InDesign for more. That would be absurd.
ES
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