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From: chewy@apple.com (Paul Snively)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system
Subject: Re: AppleEvents Confusion...
Message-ID: <9616@goofy.Apple.COM>
Date: 7 Aug 90 22:34:57 GMT
Sender: usenet@Apple.COM
Organization: Apple Computer, Inc.
Lines: 94
References:<395@three.MV.COM> <9496@goofy.Apple.COM> <402@three.MV.COM>

In article <402@three.MV.COM> cory@three.MV.COM (Cory Kempf) writes:
> >> Anyway, say I am building an application.  To reasonably enable 
> >> voice control and "Agents", I need to have all of the controlable
> >> units accessable via Appleevents.  How does this hypothetical 
> >> Agent know which events do what?
> 
> >I'm not sure where the concept of "agents" enters into this.  You don't 
> >have to attempt to implement agents in order to take advantage of 
> >AppleEvents.
> 
> No, *I* don't.  But it is pretty easy to see that Apple is trying to
> design the low level support into the system for voice activation and
> agents via the Apple Event mechanism.

Oh, is that what we're doing?  I thought we were doing component software 
and laying the groundwork for globally-accessible scripting. ;-)

> Assume that some company decides
> to impliment a voice powered macro system that uses Apple Events to
> cause the other applications (word processors, etc) to perform the 
actions
> that the user desires.

Fair enough.

> I would like to be able to design my application
> today in such that this hypothetical Agent can manipulate my application.

Ok.  If you're writing a word processor, then you'd certainly want to 
support as many of the standard text-manipulation AppleEvents as your 
application can, plus whatever other things it might wish to support--say, 
a certain level of drawing AppleEvents if you're programming another 
FullWrite. :-)

> I don't expect that the Agent will be able to understand all of the 
messages
> that each application uses internally.  The result would be an 
increadibly
> huge application (e.g. the space required to store all of the events that
> it would have to generate, as well as the code to know when to generate 
it.)

The way we're addressing this is by making it possible for a piece of 
software to ask another piece of software what it can do (that is, what 
AppleEvents it supports, what data types, etc.)

> I can see one of three results: The Agent supports only the Major 
Players (e.g.
> Adobe, Aldus, Microsoft, Informix, etc.) events, which would leave 
smaller 
> companies (e.g. the two that I work for) out in the cold

Obviously unacceptable.

> somebody has to
> come up with (and Apple would need to promote) a scheme for a user to 
> painlessly inform the agent what messages to send to the Application.  
(perhaps
> a set of User Interface Events corresponding to the things the user sees 
on
> the screen? Hmmm, expect a strawman)

We love strawmen here. :-)  And yes, you need to be able to specify how to 
send messages--this is what AppleScript is all about.

> The third is that the Agent can only 
> access about 30% of the applications' functionality: that covered by 
existing 
> standard events at the time of the products release (actually, 
development).

Given an extensible agent (e.g. via AppleScript) that can pick up new 
verbs and nouns on the fly, this shouldn't pose a problem.

> Personally, I see the addition of Apple Events as one of the most 
significant
> additions to System 7.  I also see it as one of the biggest headaches 
that I
> will have to face in designing my software in the next year.  If it is 
handled
> properly, it will be a big win.  I want to be able to cash is on it.

You will be able to--I promise. :-)

__________________________________________________________________________
                                Paul Snively
                      Macintosh Developer Technical Support
                             Apple Computer, Inc.

chewy@apple.com

Just because I work for Apple Computer, Inc. doesn't mean that I believe 
what they believe, or vice-versa.
__________________________________________________________________________