Modding Mac OS X

Expanding Suite Possibilities

Now that you know how to make a previously unscriptable application scriptable, why not push the envelope? Adding a skeleton script suite certainly opens up possibilities with respect to the core functions, but it doesn’t do much to add functionality and access to the program itself. This section shows you how to add suite items to expand the range of scripting the Stickies application. The approaches shown here can not only help to add scriptability to an “unscriptable” application, but also to expand an already-scriptable application’s repertoire.

The problems behind script suite updates

In order to start updating the script suite, it really, really helps to know exactly how a program is put together. The best way to understand an application is, of course, to read through its source code. With source code, you can see how an application’s objects work together, message each other, and so forth. All of the protocols and object declarations are set forth in a programmer-readable (if not “human-readable”) manner. Unfortunately, for the purposes of this exercise, we’re going to assume that you have no access to source code because:

• Apple, like most other developers, does not release its source code.

• Apple doesn’t want you to look at the source code.

• Source code is often pretty horrible because…

• …you may not be a programmer.

If you don’t have access to source code, the next best thing to have on hand is full class documentation. Apple is pretty good about supplying ...