Web automation

[Mike Meyer]

"Paul Boddie" <paul at boddie.org.uk> writes:
> Mike Meyer wrote:
>> qwwee... at yahoo.it writes:
>> > but I supposed the everyone knew that web automation (and in general
>> > "automation") is only a problem in Linux.
>> I don't know it. I don't believe it, either. I automate web tasks on
>> Unix systems (I don't use many Linux systems, but it's the same tool
>> set) on a regular basis.
> I imagine that "Web automation" is taken here to mean the automation of
> Web browsers

Yeah, I know. It still seems like an ass-backwards approach to
me. It's not at all clear that emulating user actions makes a sane
model for scripting. I know the non-Unix systems I've seen that did
things like that were clumsy compared to scripting interfaces that
were designed from the ground up to be scripting interfaces. But that
kind of thing varies from application to application on the systems
that support scripting.

> The problem on non-Windows systems is the lack of a common (or
> enforced) technology for exposing application object models

OS X has AppleScript. VM/CMS has Rexx. The Amiga had ARexx when MS was
still peddling DOS. Plan 9 has files. I don't think any of them are
"enforced" - then again, I don't think anything enforces exporting
objects from Windows applications, either. The thing that sets all
these apart from Unix is that the technology to export objects from
applications came bundled as a core part of the OS. Unix still doesn't
have that; instead it has a collection of languages that can be
embedded in the application. Lots of applications do that, meaning
they are automatable - but maybe not in the language you want to use
for the project.

Classic Unix (meaning pre-X) was automatable because programs were
expected to produce output that could be processed by other
programs. Those tools are still around and in daily use, and make task
automation on Unix a common and easy thing. It's only when you
restrict the meaning of "automation" to be "driving a GUI app" that
you run into problems.

    <mike
-- 
Mike Meyer <mwm at mired.org>			http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/
Independent WWW/Perforce/FreeBSD/Unix consultant, email for more information.