Hello there, I just found out about AppleScript and I thinks it's cool and groovy. So I decided to do something useful (i think) with it. The most exciting thing about the internet (IMHO) is eMail, but unfortunately eMail applications still don't have a sexy enough user interface (See the film of Michael Crichton's Disclosure). Eudora's isn't bad and First Class's is even better. But wouldn't it be nice if you could just get your eMail sent straight to your desktop, each in it's own file in a handy text format?
Yes, I can hear you all saying "enough of the chit-chat Diggory, you handsom fellow with an uncanny resemblance to Hugh Grant, we don't want dreams, we want an application that we can download and not pay for." Well my somewhat befuddled little friends I, yes I, can give you that… almost.
You see what I give you is an applescript droplet (or script for the vocabularily challenged) which will "talk" to Eudora and tell it to quietly take all of your unread messages and save them as text documents right onto your cluttered little desktops.
Unfortunately, because it is only a script you need a few things to make it run properly:
•AppleScript - It comes with system 7.5 (but runs happily under 7.1(which I use))
•The AppleScript Additions: PPPControl and File Commands (I've bundled them in)
•The Scriptable Text Editor - It comes with AppleScript (I bet you threw it away)
•Eudora - Well you didn't expect me to write all of that eMail POP,SMTP TCP/IP gubbins did you?
(I use v.1.5.1 and I haven't tested it with an earlier version - if it doesn't work then upgrade)
•A Folder on your desktop called "Mail in". (I suggest having it set to 'View By Date'). - That's not too difficult is it?
OK, here's the other bad news: I started to write this for myself so it's relitavely customised for me (see bullet No.5 above.) This means that you need the aforementioned "Mail In" folder and - here's the bummer you need to be connected to the internet via PPP. More bad news: Because Apple have failed to make Teach Text or even Simple Text Scriptable I had to use "Scriptable Text Editor." This means that the mail is saved in Scriptable Text Editor format and therefore can't be read by Simple Text. MORE BAD NEWS: This droplet only handles the incoming mail, so at present you can't send mail from the desktop as easily as you can receive it - i.e. you have to send it through Eudora. (However I've included a droplet that sends anything dropped on to it as an attachment.). Even more bad news: because of my ineptitude as a developer/programmer-type thingy the droplet will have problems saving the eMail if the "Subject:" field of the message is more than 28 characters long AND you have more than 99 messages in your "in" mailbox. Most people shouldn't have problems with this, and if you do then just clean out your mailbox and get rid of those old messages.
If you don't like the restrictions that the above paragraph presents (i.e. the name of the "Mail In" folder or the PPP dependence), then if you can wade through my code then you can pretty easily hammer the appropriate parts of the droplet with the AppleScript editor - probably. (AppleScript is an incredibly comprehensive language)
Suggested settings for Eudora:
•Notification: on receiving new mail just beep, Don't put up a dialogue or put an icon in the Application menu.
Er…well that seems to be about it really, if you like what I've done then I wouldn't be averse to a little bit of praise-mail. However if it trashes your system, or crashes or you hate it then don't blame me - you downloaded it and you coped perfectly well without it before, so you can do without it after. However, if you do think that it has major probs or you've got some constructive criticism drop me a message and I'll try not to cry.
Hope you enjoy it: Diggory
Diggory@Luna.co.uk
p.s. if I've misspelled anything in this document I don't care. Simple Text doesn't have a spell checker and I'm incomprehendably lazy. (I do like brackets don't I. (parentheses if you're american))
p.p.s if you're wondering what this droplet is called, I haven't really given it a proper name yet, but I like Bee and Becks and Mish - or maybe SkundMail - or maybe not… (private joke)
p.p.p.s if you're reading this through SimpleText then there's a message from the author in the sound menu. (I think)
