This is a system extension that implements the tcl scripting language as an OSA scripting component.
If you have any questions, suggestions, or just have some compelling need to send email, please address it to tickle@ice.com.
.c1.What is OSA?;
Apple's Open Scripting Architecture (OSA) allows any number of scripting systems to be created and used together on your Macintosh. AppleScript™ is one instance of a scripting language that is provided via OSA.
.c1.What Is Tcl ?;
You should refer to the various included documents and papers submitted to USENIX for details about tcl. Briefly, tcl is a simple string based scripting language designed to be included in standard applications. It will allow you to perform many tasks that are otherwise very labor intensive.
Tcl was created by a small set of very bright engineers, namely, John Ousterhout and his assistants. The Unix extensions were invented and implemented by Karl Lehenbauer, Mark Diekhans and Peter da Silva with help from Jordan Henderson. Tcl was ported into tickle by Tim Endres. Refer to the included documentation for further details.
.c1.Installing OSA tcl;
Installing the OSA tcl system extension is accomplished in the same manner as any other system extension. Drop the OSA tcl file icon on top of your System Folder icon and the system will automatically copy the file to the Extensions folder. Or you can drop the OSA tcl file directly on the Extensions folder if you chose.
Once the file has been copied into the Extensions folder, reboot your Macintosh to cause the scripting extension to be loaded and made available to all scripting capable applications.
.c1.Macintosh Tcl Extensions;
The following commands have been added to the standard tcl command set for the general support of Macintosh computers. These are commands that should be available regardless of the implementation of the application or environment, since they can be linked into almost any Macintosh application.
.i.ls; ?options? ?patterns...?
This command will display a list of files in the current directory. If a pattern is specified, the glob command will be invoked on the pattern and the resulting matched files listed. Options include:
-C – List the files in a columnar format (80 columns)
-F – Append a character to file names to indicate their type.
uses '•' for applications and ':' for directories.
-H – print a header is the -l option is specified.
-l – print a long listing, including file details.
.i.cd; directory
This command will set the current working directory to directory. The directory argument may or may not end with a colon. The working directory is the directory in which file names that contain no colons (folders) will be located with file related commands.
.i.pwd;
This command will return the current working directory.
.i.mkdir; ?-path? dirList
Creates the directories listed in dirList. If the -path option is included, all directories in each directory specified in dirList will be created if it does not exist.
.i.rmdir; dirList
Deletes the directories specified in the dirList.
.i.cp; fromfile tofile
Copy the file fromfile to tofile. This copies both forks and the Finder info.
.i.mv; fromfile tofile
This will rename fromfile to tofile, including changing directories if pathnames are specified. If the files reside on the same volume, then a simple rename is performed, preceded by a CatMove if different directory paths are specified. If the files reside on different volumes, then the file will first be copied, then the original deleted.
.i.rm; ?-nocomplain? fileList
This will delete the files listed in fileList. If the argument -nocomplain is specified, then no complaints or errors will be returned if a file does not exist or can not be deleted. The parameter fileList is usually the result of a glob.
.i.unlink; ?-nocomplain? fileList
This command is identical to rm.
.i.getfinfo; filename
Returns the Macintosh specific file information for filename. The information is returned as an array containing the following items:
Finder File Creator
Finder File Type
Attribute Characters (set setfinfo command)
File Creatior Date and Time
File Last Modification Data and Time
Finder Icon Location (H V)
File Data Fork Length / Directory DirID
File Resource Fork Length / Number Of Files In Directory
An example of getfinfo's output:
getfinfo Fire:MPW:src:tickle:src:Event.c
{MPS } TEXT bdlImsv {05/04/88 17:36:20} {11/18/93 02:36:50}
Sets the Macintosh specific file information for filename. The -a option's parameter attr is a string of characters where capitals are used to set the attribute and lowercase used to unset the attribute. The set of attribute characters is:
B – Has Bundle
D - On the desktop
I - Initialized by Finder
L – Locked / Alias
M – Shared
S – System File
V - inVisible In Finder
The -t option sets the file's Finder File Type to type. The -c option sets the file's Finder Creator Type to creator. The -d and -m set the file's creation and last modified dates respectively. Both options accept a date string of the format:
mm/dd/yy [hh:mm[:ss]] [AM | PM]
where brackets enclose optional elements.
.i.glob; ?switches? pattern
This is the tcl glob command written in native Mac code, with several options specific to the Mac.
The new glob now takes several newoptions. They are:
-i This option causes glob to list invisible files also.
-t TYPE This option causes glob to only list file with the indicated Finder file typeTYPE. This option may be used with the -c option.
-c CRTR This option causes glob to only list file with the indicated Finder file creatorCRTR. This option may be used with the -t option.
Also note that the original glob would skip dot files (i.e., file names the begin with a period) in the listing, unless the pattern began with a period. Tickle extends this concept one step further on the Macintosh, and skips spot files (i.e., file names that begin with '•'), unless the pattern starts with a spot.
The old option used to have filename spaces escaped in the output is no longer necessary due to tcl's new list handling, which already compensates for spaces in result elements. Thus, the option has been removed and is no longer supported.
.i.isalias; filename
This command will return "1" if the file filename is an alias file, otherwise the result is "0".
.i.resolve_alias; filename
This command will return the resolved version of the alias file filename or simply return filename if the file is not an alias file.
.i.mtime; time ?long|short|abbrev?
This command returns a Macintosh formatted time string for time. The long, short and abbrev options correspond to those in Inside Mac. Default format is short.
.i.now; ?-unix?
Returns the current Macintosh time in seconds. Calls GetDateTime(). If the -unix switch is provided, the time will be adjust to be a UNIX GMT based time instead of Macintosh time.
.i.ticks
Returns the current Macintosh tick count. Calls TickCount().
.i.beep; ?-list? ?sndName?
Plays a Macintosh beep sound. If the -list argument is provided, the list of available sounds to play is returned. If sndName is specified, then that sound is played for the beep.
.i.echo; arguments...
Echoes the arguments, separated by spaces, followed by a carriage return, to the current environment's output.
.i.ctime; time
Returns a time and date string in the format of the unix ctime() function. The time argument is Macintosh seconds and should normally be the result of the now command.
NOT IMPLEMENTED IN OSA.
.i.cvttime; selector time
Returns a time that has been converted from one domain to another. Currently, only the UNIX GMT domain and the Macintosh domain are supported. Time is an integer number of seconds. The selector is one of:
-mtu Convert from Macintosh to UNIX domain
-utm Convert from UNIX to Macintosh domain
.i.source; fileName | ?-rsrcfile path? [-rsrcname name | -rsrcid id]
The source command has been expanded for the Macintosh. It is now capable of being invoked to evaluate a TEXT resource as opposed to a file. If the -rsrcname, or -rsrcid options are specified, then the specified resource will be loaded, locked, and evaluated as a tcl script. This resource must end with the null character (0x00) since it must be a C string. If the -rsrcfile option is specified, then the TEXT resource will be searched for in path, otherwise it is searched for in the current application resource fork. If the source command is invoked with only a filename argument, then is will work as usual.
RESOURCE OPTIONS NOT IMPLEMENTED IN OSA.
.c1.Tcl Extensions;
The following commands have been added to the standard tcl command set. The commands are the extended tcl commands. Please refer to the extended command set documentation provided with the tickle application or the tcl distribution.
close
eof
file
flush
gets
open
puts
read
seek
tell
loop
keyldel
keylget
keylkeys
keylset
lvarcat
lvarpop
lvarpush
lempty
lassign
cindex
clength
crange
csubstr
replicate
translit
ctype
ctoken
max
min
random
scanfile
scanmatch
scancontext
.c1.Tickle Tcl Special Context Variables
Certain tcl variables are set depending upon the context of the interpreter:
.i.OSATCLVERS; The variable OSATCLVERS will always be defined in the format '1.0'.
.i.MACINTOSH; This variable is always set to 1 by OSA tcl.
.i.MAC_COMPONENT; This variable is always set to 1 by OSA tcl.
.c1.Tcl Environment
OSA tcl supports some extensions to the env variable ot help with portable coding within Macintosh tcl. Each of these variables can be accessed via the command set env(name). Here is a list of environment array settings set in each tickle interpretter created:
.i.APPDIR; Full path of tickle's folder.
.i.APPNAME; Name of tickle application file (normally Tickle).
.i.APPLE_MENU_FOLDER; Full pathname of Apple Menu Folder.
.i.CP_FOLDER; Full pathname of Control Panels Folder.
.i.DESK_FOLDER; Full pathname of Desktop Folder.
.i.EXT_FOLDER; Full pathname of Extensions Folder.
.i.HOME; Full pathname to user's home directory as constructed by Tickle's directory plus user's name.
.i.LOGIN; User's name as indicated in Sharing Setup.
.i.MACHINE_NAME; The Macintosh machine name (do not depend on this!).
.i.PREF_FOLDER; Full pathname of Preferences Folder.
.i.PRINT_MON_FOLDER; Full pathname of Print Monitor Documents Folder.
.i.PWD; Full pathname of current working directory, updated with each use of the cd command.
.i.SHARED_TRASH_FOLDER; Full pathname of the Shared Trash Folder.
.i.START_UP_FOLDER; Full pathname of Startup Items Folder.
.i.SYSTEM_FOLDER; Full pathname of System Folder.
.i.SYSTEM_VERSION; The Macintosh System Version (e.g. 7.01).
.i.TEMP; Full pathname of Temporary Folder for temporary files.
