6.0 beta 2 (build 652) applescript questions

[James Sentman]

On May 21, 2008, at 1:09 PM, Greg Satz wrote:

> I am playing with writing some applescript C code and am looking at  
> the procedures to download data from the latest XTension. Is the 6.0  
> beta 2 (build 652) the latest?
>
> There are various anomalies that work for some elements but not  
> others. For example "count every xInterface" returns the number of  
> interfaces on my system, 2. But "count every xUnit" returns nothing.  
> The applescript return data is empty. I assume this is just missing  
> code. Also "get name of every xUnit" doesn't appear to be supported  
> either.

Implementing the full object model in a carbon linked app is not  
practical nor is porting xtension fully to cocoa at the moment because  
it would break everyones legacy scripts that use features that I can't  
easily duplicate in cocoa yet. So it's currently a bit of a hodge  
podge mixture of both. The regular verbs are the way to go for most  
data, see the "unit type" verb to get a list of all units. But how are  
you planning to track the XTension controlled movements of the units  
back into xPL? Or are you just sending data to XTension?

I understand that xPL is wildly generic, but specifically what sorts  
of things are you connecting to? I'm only vaguely familiar with it  
from conversations with you in the past I think. If I had some  
concrete examples I might be able to decide how feasible it would be  
to support via an addon or plugin type affair. I can now create a  
device type plugin that would allow you to create units inside  
XTension that were linked to xPL units, but that would not then also  
expose the full range of your other devices to it. That could be done  
too though, both types of interfaces are now supported within XTension  
thanks to the multiple interfaces. It remains mostly a question of "do  
we want to go there?" and of course, limited resources and lifetimes ;)

I am interested in learning more, but most of the faq's and tutorials  
that I see in my initial search begin with install the API or the Perl  
library or something like that and I have no interest in reverse  
engineering that, there must be specific documents about how to  
construct the XML snippets that fly around? Is there even an xPL hub  
for the Mac or do you have to run the java version?

I believe this is about as far as we got a year or more ago when we  
last chatted about xPL, but Xtension has matured internally since then  
and really could connect to the thing now, though significant plugin  
development would still be necessary. I just need to decide if it can  
be a device type plugin which might be a fairly reasonable sized  
project, or a full target which would be a lot more work.

Thanks,
  James


James Sentman                       http://sentman.com		http://MacHomeAutomation.com