[Starkit] Tclkit and Mac OS X 10.4

[Daniel A. Steffen]

JC,

On 06/06/2005, at 0:42, Jean-Claude Wippler wrote:

> Daniel A. Steffen wrote:
>
>> presumably double-clicked .kit was handled by my Launcher app in 10.3 
>> ? are the .kit files still bound to Launcher in 10.4 ? otherwise you 
>> may have to reassociate them manually to Launcher (via the Finder 
>> Info window), maybe because something else on the system now claims 
>> .kit by default ? maybe Wishkit.app has become associated to .kit 
>> directly ? (why/how though?)
>
> I don't know how/why, but re-associating .kit files with Launcher 
> solved it for me.  Double-clicking now launches WishKit and things 
> work.

great, good to know.

FWIW, I just tried double-clicking in tiger and didn't have to do any 
re-associating, but I didn't do an upgrade install from Panther, this 
was with a clean install and a new home directory

> What I did was select a .kit file, then ctrl/click and select the Open 
> With... popup menu, then point to /Applications/Utilities/Launcher and 
> enable the "Always Open With" flag, then do a "Get Info" on the 
> starkit and make sure Open With is Launcher, and lastly "Change 
> All..." to make all starkits open that way.  Not sure it's all needed, 
> but in 10.4 I had some troubles at times to make such settings really 
> "stick".

in theory doing the "Get Info" Change All bit should be enough...

>> BTW, for the 8.4.10 BI, I'm switching the Launcher association for 
>> .kit to 'tclkit' directly, as this is now the new aqua tclkit (there 
>> is also a tclkit-X11 and a wish-X11 now); wishkit is no longer really 
>> needed (but may still be useful because it can have an icon and 
>> tclkit-aqua can't)
>
> Cool.  The benefit I see for tclkit-aqua, is that it's a single file 
> exe, which developer can use to create "standard" starpacks with from 
> other platforms (using sdx's "-runtime" option), while still getting 
> an Aqua executable with no dependency on X11.  Having .kit files 
> launch it too means the default becomes the best one for non-techie 
> deployment targets.

indeed.

I have just confirmed that starpacks built from the tclkit-aqua are in 
fact double-clickable in Finder, the only drawback is that they start 
terminal and open a terminal window that remains open until they quit; 
but this would still be the easiest deployment possible (i.e. a single 
file with no other install required)

> Does this depend on Launcher?

yes, double-clicking .kits does depend on Launcher, but this is the 
most transparent and pleasing launching IMO because it does not open 
Terminal

> Can we come up with a shell script (or some other trick) to avoid the 
> dependency on a binary which is not pre-installed on Mac OS X?

yes, you can either create a .command file next to the .kit, containing 
some script e.g.
	#!/bin/sh
	./star.kit &

or for a X11 starkit:
	#!/bin/sh
	open /Applications/Utilities/X11.app &&
	DISPLAY=:0.0 tclkit-X11 wikit.kit

note that the .command file needs to be executable. When 
double-clicked, it will open terminal and run itself.

You can even simply give a starkit a .command extension, that opens 
terminal and runs the .kit, this works just fine but again leaves a 
terminal window open until the starkit has finished execution.

>  It's no big deal btw, because tclkit itself also needs to be 
> installed.  On Windows, sdx generates a mystarkit.bat file when 
> wrapping, though I'm not sure that gets used much.

the .command approach as above would be quite similar

Cheers,

Daniel

-- 
** Daniel A. Steffen     **  "And now for something completely
** Dept. of Mathematics  **   different"    Monty Python
** Macquarie University  **  <mailto:steffen at maths.mq.edu.au>
** NSW 2109 Australia    **  <http://www.maths.mq.edu.au/~steffen/>