Re: Fwd: Re: ns-do-applescript

[Filipp Gunbin]

On 30/05/2022 10:50 +0800, Po Lu wrote:

> Jon Snader <jcs@irreal.org> writes:
>
>>> Why do you think ns-do-applescript and osascript are just about
>>> getting contact data? Applescript is a terrible language but it can
>>> interact with macOS to do just about anything you can do from the
>>> keyboard. As I said in my original post, I use it to get the URL of
>>> Safari's current page without having to leave Emacs.
>
> So how can I do that on a free system?  How do I obtain the URL of
> Epiphany's current page without having to leave Emacs?
>
>>> The ns-do-applescript call is (or could be considered) simply a call
>>> to an OS specific interface routine. It's useful for many things
>>> besides getting contacts and its presence in *in the macOS Emacs
>>> build* hurts no one, whereas its removal is sure to cause lots of
>>> inconvenience for Mac users and those writing packages for the
>>> platform.
>
> We don't want to make things convenient for Mac users, when those things
> are not possible on a free system.  Just as Emacs doesn't provide
> "OS-specific interface routines" to perform tasks on non-free operating
> systems that are not possible on free ones.

Though I don't object to the function's removal, I have a feeling that
the comparison is unfair.  ns-do-applescript provides an _API_ to call
OS-specific functionality.  IMO, it's what the _clients_ of that API
(core Emacs features) do, that should be judged by the criteria you
mention.

Filipp