Variable,

Thanks for replying. I'm using 10.3.2 and the latest Panther Script Editor.

I do know about these keys, but don't use them much. I figured that, if I didn't find a more elegant route, I would have to simulate these keystrokes using "System Events" - but using UI scripting always feels like a bit of a cheat!

Here's the problem again.  I'm in an active window, and I want to run a script that starts by getting the name of the app which owns this active window. But when I start my script this target app is now no longer the frontmost app, because now another process has taken over to run the script - namely "System Events", (or "Script Editor" if I run the script from the editor window). I need to be able to reference this previous app in my code, but I haven't found a way to.

Jon,

First of all, many many thanks for the links - exactly what I wanted.

Secondly, as I stated, I am a newbie to scripting (hence the clearly flagged title) - but not to the etiquette and methods of forums. I have worked extremely hard not to bother more experienced users with this simple problem until I felt that I really needed help. I searched in many other places before coming to Macscripter. It is remarkable to me that such a basic element of scripting is not more widely documented.

Thirdly, I searched *extremely hard* on this forum for a post that would address this problem. I'm afraid that I didn't find anything, hence my post. As you will know, these things are often a case of forming a query in a site search engine that describes exactly what the problem is *in a manner of speech an earlier poster may have put it*. This is not always easy and even a random search gave me no results.

Lastly, as a new macscripter user making a first post, I cannot be privy to the knowledge that comes from long experience of using this forum. Repeated posts, however tedious to the expert, are still new to somebody. (Note that the previous responder to this query was also not aware that this problem had been asked before) I am a very experienced user on various other forums, and always try to bear this in mind.

One man's voyage of discovery is, I'm afraid, another man's source of irritation. That's why I place the word "newbie" in the title - so that those offended can choose to ignore it.

Many thanks.

maybe it works with a little trick.
In AppleScript’s own dictionary there is an "path to frontmost application" command.

Applescript:

set thePath to path to frontmost application as Unicode text
set oldDelims to AppleScript's text item delimiters
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {":"}
set frontmost_app to text item -2 of thePath
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to oldDelims

frontmost_app contains the name of the frontmost application

[EDIT] or much easier:

Applescript:

set frontmost_app to name of (info for (path to frontmost application))

Model: G5 dual 2,5 GHz
Browser: Safari 419.3
Operating System: Mac OS X (10.4)

Last edited by StefanK (2006-10-25 05:22:39 am)

Thank you - I was wracking my brain to recall that, given that Jonn8 hasn't been around for a while.

Hello

I'm puzzled.

Why the script doesn't behave the same if I replace the instruction


        set visible of it to false

by

        set its visible to false

In this script borrowed from ApplescriptLanguageGuide « of it » and « its » behave the same.

Applescript:

tell application "Finder"
   it --result: application "Finder" (target of tell statement)
   set myFolder to path to home folder
   --result: alias "Leopard:Users:myUser:"
   files in myFolder --result: a list of Finder document files
   files in myFolder where name of it contains "AppleScript"
   (* result: document file "AppleScriptLG.pdf" of folder "myUser"
of folder "Users" of startup disk of application "Finder"}*)
   
   files in myFolder where its name contains "AppleScript" -- same result
   
   files in myFolder where name contains "AppleScript" -- same result
   every file in myFolder whose name contains "AppleScript" -- same result
   every file in myFolder where name of it contains "AppleScript"
   -- same result
end tell

Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) lundi 13 août 2012 17:12:25

Thank you

I'm hitting a wall with the same kind of instruction.
As I'm curious, I tried :

Applescript:

tell application "Finder"
   every folder of folder "Macintosh HD:usr:share:locale:" where name of it contains ".UTF8"
end tell

It returns {}

Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) mercredi 15 août 2012 16:57:58

Last edited by Yvan Koenig (2012-08-15 09:58:38 am)

Hello Nigel

Thank

What fool I am ?
The problem wasn't the instruction, it was the searched string.
I dropped a dash and of course the code found nothing.

Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) mercredi 15 août 2012 21:06:30

Hi McUsr,

In Mavericks, when I run this script:

Applescript:

tell application "System Events"
   set fa to name of first process whose frontmost is true
end tell
display dialog fa

I get "Safari".

Except that it's deprecated, and lots of apps don't have a creator type.

Which saves how much time exactly?

FWIW, I think this is a particularly bad piece of advice.

Not when it means writing code that's likely to break in future, IMO.

I may hope compiled C code; machine code.;) besides that, a good hash table is only a few lines of code.

Application by name or (bundle) id is as different as searching a mail by subject or sender. The search will only be done by different strings on different columns in the database. Depending on the indexing of the database, which with no doubt will be fine, there is no difference between finding an application by it's name or bundle id.

From where I understand it is not the version number but the AppleEvent manager will send it's event to the first running process. To get running processes by job or by name from the process database (manager) is imo equally fast.

If the process isn't running then it uses launch services's meta database. In this database (you can see it when you dump it) the bundle id, name or creator code have all the same multiple values. In here there is still not another record having more advantage of the other. So when I look for org.mozilla.firefox for example, I will see all the version loaded from teh downloaded DMG files and installed versions, if I look by bundle id or name.

Creator code is a no go because it's old legacy code coming from Mac OS systems. It's an last resort

Last edited by DJ Bazzie Wazzie (2013-11-23 08:22:59 pm)