Use Automator Variable at all?
Use Automator Variable at all?
- Subject: Use Automator Variable at all?
- From: Matt Neuburg <email@hidden>
- Date: Sat, 17 Nov 2007 13:05:30 -0800
- Thread-topic: Use Automator Variable at all?
> Date: Sun, 4 Nov 2007 12:47:10 +0100
> From: Sebastian Siedentopf <email@hidden>
> Subject: Use Automator Variable in Shell Script
> To: email@hidden
> Message-ID: <email@hidden>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes
>
> Hello,
>
> is it possible to use Automator's variables in the "Run Shell Script"
> action (e.g. as environment variables)?
I'm waiting for someone to prove that Automator variables can be used at
all. I don't mean those fake variables (constants) that are just a condensed
way of picking up some system value; I mean real variables, that you can get
and set. I haven't seen yet a single workflow that uses them. Nor can I make
one. Not one that works, anyhow.
I mean, a variable is a shoebox into which you put a value now and extract
it later. If you can't do that, it isn't a variable. Okay, so we have two
actions, Set Value of Variable and Get Value of Variable. The problem is
that when I Get Value of Variable, what I get out is often quite different
from what I put in a moment ago with Set Value of Variable.
I've posted screen shots of two examples where what goes in a list and what
comes out is only the first item of that list:
http://www.apeth.com/textTry.png
http://www.apeth.com/pathVariable.png
But often things are much worse. Sometimes what goes in is a string and what
comes out is - nothing at all, Get Value comes up empty. Sometimes what goes
in is a list, and what comes out is a *longer* list (an empty string has
been appended to the list).
And all of this swims and changes right before my eyes in the very same
testing session. It's like variables just roll the dice as to how they will
munge what's handed to them.
Even if I could get variables to set and get, I'm not sure how I'd use them
(I haven't had much luck getting existing Actions to accept a variable as a
parameter), but first I'd just like to hear that variables work at all.
m.
--
matt neuburg, phd = email@hidden, http://www.tidbits.com/matt/
pantes anthropoi tou eidenai oregontai phusei
Among the 2007 MacTech Top 25, http://tinyurl.com/2rh4pf
AppleScript: the Definitive Guide, http://tinyurl.com/2ouo3b
Take Control of Customizing Leopard, http://tinyurl.com/2t9629
TidBITS, Mac news and reviews since 1990, http://www.tidbits.com
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