inconsistent folder actions

Scripting Forums AppleScript | Mac OS X
#1

Troubles.

I currently have a very simple folder action script (below). ‘Hello’
does not always display. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

The original script sends an email ‘after receiving these_items’
and that too, suddenly, stopped working.

At this point, I’m dragging a file into the folder to test.
I get very inconsistent results.

Any tips?


on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving these_items
	repeat with an_item in these_items
		display dialog "hello!"
	end repeat
end adding folder items to
#2

soda:

I have had a few problems in scripts that I have written using the syntax:

repeat with some_thing in every_thing

Sometimes those repeats work, but mostly they seem to be infuriatingly finicky.

I now almost always use this syntax:

repeat with some_thing from 1 to (count every_thing)

I hate using such bulky code, but I like things to work.

Hope this helps.

casdvm

#3

It’s worth remembering that, in the ‘currentItem in someList’ form of repeat loop, the value of the variable ‘currentItem’ (or whatever) is initially a reference. In certain situations, it will be implicitly coerced to an appropriate class - but this is not always the case. If you ever need to explicitly evaluate it, use ‘contents of’. Compare, for example, these results:

set l to {}
repeat with n in {1, 2, 3}
    set l's end to n
end repeat
l
--> {item 1 of {1, 2, 3}, item 2 of {1, 2, 3}, item 3 of {1, 2, 3}}


set l to {}
repeat with n in {1, 2, 3}
    set l's end to n * 2
end repeat
l
--> {2, 4, 6}


set l to {}
repeat with n in {1, 2, 3}
    set l's end to n's contents (* or contents of n *)
end repeat
l
--> {1, 2, 3}