"Paul Boddie" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > Mike Meyer wrote: >> [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: >> > but I supposed the everyone knew that web automation (and in general >> > "automation") is only a problem in Linux. >> I don't know it. I don't believe it, either. I automate web tasks on >> Unix systems (I don't use many Linux systems, but it's the same tool >> set) on a regular basis. > I imagine that "Web automation" is taken here to mean the automation of > Web browsers
Yeah, I know. It still seems like an ass-backwards approach to me. It's not at all clear that emulating user actions makes a sane model for scripting. I know the non-Unix systems I've seen that did things like that were clumsy compared to scripting interfaces that were designed from the ground up to be scripting interfaces. But that kind of thing varies from application to application on the systems that support scripting. > The problem on non-Windows systems is the lack of a common (or > enforced) technology for exposing application object models OS X has AppleScript. VM/CMS has Rexx. The Amiga had ARexx when MS was still peddling DOS. Plan 9 has files. I don't think any of them are "enforced" - then again, I don't think anything enforces exporting objects from Windows applications, either. The thing that sets all these apart from Unix is that the technology to export objects from applications came bundled as a core part of the OS. Unix still doesn't have that; instead it has a collection of languages that can be embedded in the application. Lots of applications do that, meaning they are automatable - but maybe not in the language you want to use for the project. Classic Unix (meaning pre-X) was automatable because programs were expected to produce output that could be processed by other programs. Those tools are still around and in daily use, and make task automation on Unix a common and easy thing. It's only when you restrict the meaning of "automation" to be "driving a GUI app" that you run into problems. <mike -- Mike Meyer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/ Independent WWW/Perforce/FreeBSD/Unix consultant, email for more information. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list