Re: GSWrapper.app (Re: StepTalk script to set app wrappers in Dock.app)

[Frederico Muñoz]

Raffael Herzog writes: 

> On Mon, 14 Jun 2004 22:38:45 +0100, Frederico Muñoz <fsmunoz@gesal.org>  
> wrote: 
>
> > One of the things that have been bugging me in the GWorkspace Dock.app  
> > (that I've been suing extensively) is the fact that applications  
> > launched trough App Wrappers don't behave properly due to the missing  
> > notifications.
>
> I'm currently working on GSWrapper.app. It provides: 
>
> - A GUI for creating app wrappers, including setting icons via drag and  
> drop and defining file types.
> - Scripts for start, start and open, open and eventually more, e.g.  
> activate
> - Services to create and edit wrappers from within GWorkspace 
>
> What exactly does it do? It's GNUstep application that starts a  
> non-GNUstep application using NSTask and monitors it. Its delegate listens 
> to applicationDidFinishLaunching:, application:openFile(s): and runs the  
> shell scripts accordingly.

(snip) 

The script I made can be  considered a GNUstep application in the sense that 
it properly initializes itself, registers for DO, etc. I made it using 
StepTalk because it's easier and seemed more in line with the way App 
Wrappers are implemented, i.e. they mimic the structure of a proper AppDir 
and have a ascrip as NSExecutable. The same could be made using Objective-C, 
of course. The script only does enough to provide the proper notifications 
that GWorkspace expects to detect that the app was is running or was closed. 

Adding anything mroe in the script would be overkill... I changed it locally 
so it can understand the -GSFilePath syntax so it already works perfectly 
with icons clicked or DnD to the application icon in the Dock. This is 
enough for my purposes since it allows appwrappers to behave exactly the 
same as GNUstep apps in what regards the Dock. 

I welcome more ambitious projects such as the one you mention tough. This 
was just a quick fix to a problem that was for me rather annoying in my 
daily use of GWorkspace and Dock. What you are describing goes well behiond 
that, and I eagerly expect its release. 


Best Regards, 

Frederico Muñoz