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Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.announce From: David Griffiths <dave@prim.demon.co.uk> Subject: SUBMISSION: Puppeteer - remote control of NeXTSTEP applications Organization: Next Announcements Approved: sanguish@digifix.com For more information please contact: Dave Griffiths Primitive Software Ltd. + 44 780 62202 dave@prim.demon.co.uk Primitive Software Ltd. announces Puppeteer, an object to remotely control other applications. Puppeteer provides the capability to write command line programs to access NeXTSTEP applications, or to produce service macros to provide shortcuts for repetitive operations. One shortcoming of most GUI based applications is that they can only be operated by human control of the mouse and keyboard. Puppeteer can overcome this problem and provide remote control of any application. In effect, it provides an API to all NeXTSTEP applications. A package containing Puppeteer together with example programs and documentation has been uploaded to the ftp site sonata.cc.purdue.edu under submissions as Puppeteer_1.0.tar.Z. This release of Puppeteer is only for black hardware running release 3.0. Future releases will include support for NS/FIP. The example programs are as follows: websterPuppet: returns the definition of a word from the Webster application. preferencesPuppet: this command line program toggles the Public Window Server switch in Preferences. previewPuppet: asks Preview to print an eps file. The program will bring up the Page Layout panel and then click either the Portrait or Landscape button accordingly. Then it will bring up the Print panel with a cmd-p, followed by a return to print the file. terminalPuppet: outputs a file of text to a given application (default Terminal), pausing for a specified time after every line. PuppetDemo: a NeXTSTEP application that controls another app. Mouse and keyboard events are relayed to the remote application. Puppeteer is a shareware object and costs $25. The source code to the sample programs is free. Puppeteer can be used to click buttons and enter text automatically. It can simulate most user actions. If you find yourself performing any repetitive operations take a look and see if Puppeteer can provide a shortcut. The example programs are short and easy to write. If in doubt as to it's capability, please contact me.
These are the contents of the former NiCE NeXT User Group NeXTSTEP/OpenStep software archive, currently hosted by Marcel Waldvogel and Netfuture.ch.