[MacPerl] MacPerl and inter-application communication

[Susan McNab <smcnab@gol.com>]

Hello everybody,
I am a new list member and new to Perl programming as well. I have been
using MacPerl for a about a month, with the h*lp of MacPerl: Power and
Ease. I really like it.

I wrote a simple Perl script that uses MacPerl::DoAppleScript to extract
data from FileMaker Pro fields, create a document and save the extracted
data in the newly created document. So far so good. I tried saving the
script as a compiled program (call it "PageEngine") which I wanted to
trigger from FileMaker Pro. When I triggered "PageEngine" from AppleScript
it worked just fine. When I tried to trigger it from FileMaker Pro using
exactly the same AppleScript command it wouldn't work. The script would
start and then time out, leaving the "PageEngine" open but not having run
through the entire script.  When I tried using apple events the same thing
happened.

I finally got it to work by putting the MacPerl script inside FileMaker Pro
using the program's internal "Do Script" capability. This method is too
slow and isn't the most convenient way considering other steps that have to
be executed. I wanted to keep "PageEngine" running and then have it make a
page each time an instruction is sent from FileMaker Pro either by an Apple
Event or AppleScript routine. I assume that I have left out some kind of
code that would enable MacPerl to communicate properly with FileMaker Pro.
At the moment at least, I can't find any documentation that deals directly
with this subject.

Can anyone point me in the right direction toward solving this?

I would be interested in any discussion on the topic of MacPerl and
inter-application communication in general as well.


Thanks in advance for any h*lp and I hope this subject is appropriate for
the list.

Sue McNab

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