![]() And for more serious extensions, many of the apps I depend on have plug-in APIs.Įven beyond the benefit of designing features to one’s own specifications, it’s also a just plain solid solution to a Really Hard Problem that still exists today: inter-application communication and data sharing. The other day, while tinkering with a small project in Script Debugger, the answer hit me - I already do hack together tiny little additions and modifications to the software I use, with scripting. But I feel no strong urge to see any of the closed source apps I use released as open source. I can write a little code, and my brain is chockablock with niggling little complaints and feature requests regarding the software I use. The question I’ve been pondering the last few weeks, though, is why I’m not as bothered by the status quo as Bray. Gruber likens this approach to open source software, as an alternative way programmers can adapt software to their needs: “The Mac Way” is streamlined applications that eschew configuration for a solid implementation of the most common case. But it excels at customization through scripting. Mac applications don’t have complex configuration files, and core components (like a window manager) can’t be swapped out for another implementation. Figure 3 assigning a shortcut key to Trash It using FastScripts. OS X is not customizable in the ways other operating systems are. Programmers on OS X will still benefit from learning AppleScript. Lua is closely related to JavaScript, so porting them was a no-brainer, hence Windowpane. That just leaves #3, the Lua scripts themselves. ![]() Apple themselves provide bindings for Cocoa’s accessibility features in at least two languages: AppleScript, and the new JavaScript for Automation. FastScripts is a utility for running AppleScripts with keyboard shortcuts 2, that’s #1. I’ve used Daniel Jalkut’s excellent FastScripts for years. The reason I wrote Windowpane is that there’s so much software here that just does the same thing as other software I already have on my machine. Lua scripts that calculate window sizes and positions on a grid. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |