[MacPerl] Using Mac::OSA:Simple

[Martin Buchmann]

Hi,

i was quite impressed when i read Chris annoucement of the release of 
the OSA::Simple module a few weeks ago and today i found the time to 
try it. Basically this is a two part question, first i wondering why 
things are not working the way i thought and then i want to improve 
what i thought. Here is what i'm talking about :-)

I have a bundle of MacPerl scripts using MacPerl::DoAppleScript to 
include Applescript for launching other apps, etc. I know that this 
is slow but i never was able to use AppleEvents directly so i'm fine 
with it.

Now i thought maybe a compilation via compile_applescript would lead 
to some decrease of processing time. So i tried a simple thing like:

use Mac::OSA::simple;

my $mp = compile_applescript(<<'EOMP') or die $!;
with timeout of 300 seconds
tell application "OS9:Applications (Mac OS 9):CMacTeX 4.2:binaries:mpost"
activate
quit
end tell
end timeout
EOMP
$mp->execute;

and it works fine, i.e. it starts the Metapost application from Tom 
Kiffe's CMacTeX and quits it immediately. If i try to use a command 
line like

exec "mpost test.mp" in the folder alias "OS9:Desktop Folder:"

between 'activate' and 'quit' it works fine too, i.e. Metapost 
processes the file and i get the resulting eps-file.

But if i try to put two variables instead of the explicit file and 
path it is not working. Of course the two variables are defined 
before.

The following script:

#!perl

use warnings;
use strict;
use Mac::OSA::Simple;

my $mpcommand = "mpost text.mp";
my $path = "OS9:Desktop Folder";
my $mp = compile_applescript(<<'EOMP') or die $!;
with timeout of 300 seconds
tell application "OS9:Applications (Mac OS 9):CMacTeX 4.2:binaries:mpost"
activate
exec $mpcommand in the folder alias $path
quit
end tell
end timeout
EOMP
$mp->execute;

leads to:

# OS9:Desktop Folder:simpletest.pl syntax OK
# Operation not permitted.
File 'OS9:Desktop Folder:simpletest.pl'; Line 11
Line 11 is the compile_applescript statement.

Of course all this does not lead to a big decrease in processing 
time. So the final goal would be to compile a script which reads two 
arguments when it is executed, in this case the filename and the 
path. And then execute it several times at runtime with different 
files. Is this possible?

Best regards,
Martin
--
(1) Never draw what you can copy.
(2) Never copy what you can trace.
(3) Never trace what you can cut out and paste down.