[Pythonmac-SIG] Accessing front window in IDE

[Joseph J. Strout]

At 6:28 AM -0400 10/08/99, Gordon Worley wrote:

>Could you please write a short example of how to [get the frontmost window].

OK, here's a script that, when run, adds "# Spam!" to the end of the 
frontmost window if that's an editor window.  You'll note a couple of 
simpler demos, which simply inspect the window or the editor object, 
commented out.  Place this in your IDE Scripts folder, and get the 
IDE to rescan this folder with the "Python > Preferences > Set 
Scripts Folder" menu command.

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"""
This script illustrates how to access the contents of the frontmost window
in the Python IDE.  Handy for making little utilities for the "Scripts"
menu, like text reformatters and such.
"""

import W
import Win
import PyEdit
import Res
import PyAdvancedEditor

# get a reference to the Python object corresponding to the frontmost window
wid = Win.FrontWindow()
if wid and W._application._windows.has_key(wid):
	window = W._application._windows[wid]
else:
	window = None

# now, see if that's an editor window...
if window and isinstance(window, PyEdit.Editor):
	# yep, we have an editor window... do something with (or to) it!

	# demo 1: just inspect the window
	#inspect(window)

	# demo 2: inspect the actual editor
	#editor = window.editgroup.editor
	#inspect(editor)

	# demo 3: grab the text, and operate on it
	editor = window.editgroup.editor
	selStart, selEnd = editor.ted.WEGetSelection()
	text = editor.get()

	text = text + "\r# Spam!"

	editor.set(text)
	editor.ted.WESetSelection(selStart, selEnd)
	if isinstance(editor, PyAdvancedEditor.PyAdvancedEditor):
		editor.markDirty(0, len(text))
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In the place where I've done "text = text + "\r# Spam!"", you could 
instead do any manipulation on the text you want -- it's the full 
text in the editor, with lines separated by '\r' characters.  You 
could tabify, detabify, etc.  Or you could leave the text alone, and 
do something with the window -- e.g., if you're good with 
AppleEvents, you could write us a "Reveal in Finder" script that 
switches to the Finder and selects the file corresponding to this 
editor window.

If you do any of these, please post them here or on a web page so the 
rest of us can enjoy them too!

Cheers,
-- Joe

,------------------------------------------------------------------.
|    Joseph J. Strout           Biocomputing -- The Salk Institute |
|    joe@strout.net             http://www.strout.net              |
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