RE: [MacPerl] Batch, Archives, and Control strips

["Creede Lambard (Volt Computer)" <a-creela@microsoft.com>]

> (1) How can one make a batch file, or in some other way make 
> a MacPerl script
> that will open multiple programs then terminate? I'm looking 
> through the pod
> now but I don't se it yet. 
> _____My intention is to open Netscapr, ICQ, BlitzMail etc at 
> once rather than
> seperately. And simmilar things for graphics manipulation and 
> web development.
> I'm on a <iMac running MacOS 8.1>.

Possibly the easiest way to do this would be through AppleScript:

# ----------------------------------------------------
#

MacPerl::DoAppleScript("<<HERE");
tell application "Finder"
    select item (alias "Path:To:Netscape")
    open selection
    select item (alias "Path:To:ICQ")
    open selection
    select item (alias "Path:To:Blitzmail")
    open selection
end tell
HERE

#  perl script continues
# ----------------------------------------------------

It's slow, but it works. I have a similar process that uses the underlying
AppleEvents, because it's faster (you're talking directly to the Mac OS
rather than having AppleScript as your intermediary). It's also more prone
to errors, unless you're familiar with AppleEvents.

On Unix and Windows it's much easier; there are several ways to start a
program in those environments. They depend on a command line processor,
though, which the Mac lacks.

> (3) On MacOS 8.1 (and I'm assuming later) there's a "control 
> strip". Is there a
> way to make a control strip module in MacPerl?

What do you have in mind? IMHO Perl really isn't suited for this sort of
task. You can create stand-alone programs, but they're relatively big and
costly in terms of system resources because every "runtime" created this way
has to have its own copy of the Perl interpreter attached.

Possibly the sort of thing you want to do could be done in Perl in a
different way. For instance, if you want to write a control strip module
that gives you the track list for an audio CD, I'd just write it as a normal
Perl script popping up a normal Mac dialog box. Much simpler and easier to
maintain.

-- Creede

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