Greetings, Factorials -
I've posted a vocab to the pastebin, a Factor interface to OS X
Spotlight<http://paste.factorcode.org/new-paste?__c=9053524212955052707>
.
Pardon the length; this should be split into at least 2 code files &
a docs file. Just seems best to show everything together for the post.
The general strategy is to compose a Spotlight query as a command-line
one-liner
and write that to an executable shell script file; then, launch a Factor
process
that calls that executable. The script directs the shell output to a named
text file, whose contents are returned to Factor as a sequence of
file-lines.
OS X exposes 4 commands that deal with Spotlight via its MetaData index:
mdfind, mdls, mdutil, mdimport (see their man pages for details).
Implementing
mdfind was my main aim, but getting at all 4 from Factor seemed worth the
effort.
What a rabbit hole! I had to console myself with frequent laughter breaks
reading
*The Unix-Hater's Handbook* (*q.v.*). Oy!!
To try out the code, you'll need to put a plain-text file in some
convenient path,
to receive query results. Also, set up an executable file somewhere; your
command-
line scripts will be written there. You can modify the paths to these 2
files,
& the form of the hashbang, to suit convenience & your shell. Just be
consistent
with what the code expects. (Dont forget to put the pastebin code in a
folder named
"spotlight", within your "work" folder, to exercise it in the listener.)
I'd appreciate it if folks would try the examples (modifying paths &
filenames),
compose arbitrary queries; see what breaks, is cumbersome, impossible, or
goofy;
and suggest improvements or alternative approaches for working with
Spotlight.
Alex's suggestion of using streams seems more intuitive & direct to me, but
I
foundered wading those waters.
And, yeah, I'm hip - a ridiculous plethora of string CONSTANT:s. A few are
just composition crutches, and overkill. The majority seem to suit this
approach.
See what you think.
Do take a look at the code, if you have an interest, and opine away.
Cheers,
CW Alston
--
*~ Memento Amori*
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