NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #3/NN_1993_3.iso/spool/comp/sys/mac/hypercar/4981

Internet Message Format | 1993-01-28 | 2.7 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!comp.vuw.ac.nz!waikato.ac.nz!ldo
From: [e-mail] (Lawrence D'Oliveiro, Waikato University)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard
Subject: Re: Sending arbitrary AppleEvents to other applications
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 29 Jan 93 16:58:25 +1300
References: <[e-mail]>
Organization: University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand
Lines: 36

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Mark Phaedrus) writes:
>      I'm trying to use HyperCard 2.1 to prototype an interface to an
> AppleEvent-driver background application, and I'm running into problems.
> I'd been told that HyperCard could send and receive arbitrary AppleEvents
> (events with multiple parameters stored under various keywords), and I can see
> from the documentation how I would go about receiving such events (using an
> appleEvent handler, requesting data by keyword), but I don't see any mention
> of how to construct such multiple-keyword AppleEvents to send to other
> applications.  Do I need to use an XCMD or XFCN for this, and if so could
> someone point me towards one?

Yes, you need to do it with XCMDs or XFCNs. There are in fact more than one
set of these around. There's one extensive set done by Edmund Lai at Apple,
that lets you make individual AppleEvent Manager calls to construct and send
an AppleEvent. I'm not sure if this is available on the net anywhere.

I've got a set similar to this. Actually, at the time I wrote it, I didn't
know what Ed Lai had done. But having seen his code (on one of the developer
CDs), I think mine is a little easier to use, because I pass around AppleEvent
descriptors as literal hex strings, instead of pointers to blocks of memory.
This simplifies memory management (HyperCard takes care of all allocation/
disposing of strings!), but it is admittedly slower converting descriptors
back and forth between formats all the time.

Would there be much interest if I were to make my externals available on the
net somewhere? You do really have to read the AppleEvent Manager chapter in
Inside Mac VI in order to use them properly, but I've found them useful
for experimentation. For example, I've been using them with FileMaker Pro over
the last week or two to try to perform some database manipulations that are
just too hard to do from within FileMaker itself. And to learn about the
AppleEvent Object Model, while I'm at it.

Lawrence D'Oliveiro                       fone: [phone]
Computer Services Dept                     fax: [phone]
University of Waikato            electric mail: [e-mail]
Hamilton, New Zealand    37^ 47' 26" S, 175^ 19' 7" E, GMT+13:00