Re: [MacPerl] MacPerl, Mac OS 8, and AppleScript

[Peter Westlake <peter@harlequin.co.uk>]

Here's what I've tried today, after reading a lot of helpful
mail - thanks, everyone!

Some details: the application I'm trying to run is called
"HOPE", and it's based on MacPerl 5.1.3r2, 21Jan97. Its
purpose is to talk via sockets to the company's source
control system. In interactive mode, it puts up a window
where I can type source control commands and see output
from them. If a text file is dragged onto its icon, it
reads commands from it, executes them, and quits. I can
simulate this with my "launch / open" AppleScript. The
file I'm passing it contains commands in HOPE's own syntax
to check out a copy of the latest source of our product.
After the checkout the code is compiled. A version of this
system which works by running HOPE from the MPW shell with
the syntax "{path_to_HOPE_app} -wait filename" has been
running on Mac OS 8.1 and 8.0 for a long time. That system
runs a Perl 4 MPW tool, the Perl 5 MPW tool I'm working
with now, and HOPE, and the current MacPerl is present on
the machine though not actually used.

HOPE consists of a copy of MacPerl 5.1.3r2 with a Perl script
embedded in it in a manner that no-one now here remembers,
but which the FAQ suggests is probably a Runtime Module.

Yesterday I discovered that running my Perl script in MacPerl
itself worked without any trouble. Here are today's findings.

Key:

"Dialog" means I used an AppleScript 'display dialog "foo"'.
"HOPE" means I used the one I posted, which launches HOPE and
passes it a file.

"MPW" or "TS" mean I ran the Perl MPW tool in MPW Shell or Toolserver,
followed by one of the MPW commands "flush" (to flush the tool cache)
or "quit" (to quit MPW or TS altogether). I ran the TS tests by
dragging a file containing "{perltool} filename; quit" onto ToolServer.

I was able to do some of the tests on Mac OS 8.1 as well as 8.5.1,
but not all, because the machine with 8.1 runs the old version of
the checkout-and-build system I mentioned above, and it starts up
automatically at noon! 

I repeated each test at least seven times, and more often if I
was having trouble believing what I saw ...

Results:

   dialog, TS, quit, 8.1: worked every time.

   dialog, TS, quit, 8.5.1: worked every time.

   dialog, MPW, flush, 8.5.1: second attempt crashes the machine.

   HOPE, MPW, flush, 8.5.1: second attempt crashes, as might be expected.

   HOPE, TS, quit, 8.1: worked every time.

   HOPE, TS, quit, 8.5.1: bizarre. It alternated between
   working perfectly (first time, third, etc) and opening
   the HOPE app for interactive use! The file of commands
   was opened, but in a window, which is consistent with
   what happens if I select File/Open during interactive use.

   HOPE, MPW, quit, 8.5.1: as above, but launching or opening
   seemingly at random instead of in strict alternation.

One flaw in the last two tests is that some of the later ones
were interleaved, i.e I ran an MPW test, then a TS one, then
MPW again, in no particular order; but by the time I started
to do that I had already seen that TS was alternating and MPW
was not. Of course, the alternation could be purely by chance,
but it has persisted over ten trials now, unperturbed by MPW
tests being run in between.

I hope all this means something to someone ...

Peter.


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