How to launch applications on Mac with Ruby?

[Whaat]

Hi,

On PC, I am using UI.openURL(file_path) to open an application or run a batch file. This does not seem to work on Mac. Or does it? How do you launch an application on a Mac with Ruby?

Also, can you create and run a batch file on a Mac? Does Mac have something equivalent to batch files?

Thanks!

[tomasz]

Hi Whaat,
There was a thread dedicated to this issue.

In SU2KT I do it this way:

@unknownuser said:

Thread.new do
system(command options)
end

I though it will allow KT to run without freezing the SU, but it works only for very limited time.

I hope we can find proper way to do it on both systems.

Tomasz

[AdamB]

Ha. I find totally the opposite so in LightUp I have to do:

UI.openURL("file;//" + File.expand_path(filepath)) if filepath and not(PLATFORM.include? "mswin")

On (my test) PC, it just crashes.

Un*x systems have very flexible 'batch files'. They can be arbitrary languages too but adding a line at the beginning of the batch file. Starting with:

#!/bin/bash

means run this batch file using this flavor of shell (aka Cmd.exe in Win32)

[Whaat]

@adamb said:

Ha. I find totally the opposite so in LightUp I have to do:

UI.openURL("file;//" + File.expand_path(filepath)) if filepath and not(PLATFORM.include? "mswin")
> 

So this works to open an App or file on a Mac? (I can't test right now)

[Whaat]

@unknownuser said:

Hi Whaat,
There was a thread dedicated to this issue.

In SU2KT I do it this way:

@unknownuser said:

Thread.new do
  system(`command options`)
end

I though it will allow KT to run without freezing the SU, but it works only for very limited time.

I hope we can find proper way to do it on both systems.

Tomasz

Thank Tomasz, I am aware of the thread but I did not see a solution that worked with Mac. I am able to launch Indigo with parameters using a batch file on a PC (the command window closes after execution) but I am trying to figure out how to do the equivalent on a Mac

[tomasz]

@whaat said:

[I am aware of the thread but I did not see a solution that worked with Mac.

I thought that

system(`command options`)

works fine on Mac. At least I have had such an impression from posts from Mac users on KT forum.
Unfortunately I have no Mac available to test it on my own.
The method will probably block SU on MAC, so it is not a perfect solution anyway.

Tomasz

[AdamB]

@whaat said:

@adamb said:

Ha. I find totally the opposite so in LightUp I have to do:

UI.openURL("file;//" + File.expand_path(filepath)) if filepath and not(PLATFORM.include? "mswin")
> > 

So this works to open an App or file on a Mac? (I can't test right now)

OK, it looks like PC just can't handle being given a scheme handler. If you just give the path on PC it works fine. On the Mac, it (correctly in my book) expects a scheme handler for the URL.

Adam

[TIG]

UI.openURL("file;//" + File.expand_path(filepath))

works fine on a PC, if 'filepath' points to either an exe-file ora file-type... I don't see the issue ?
If you want to open a file with a particular app on a PC use a WinScript socket...

[AdamB]

Not on my WinXP laptop. Just crashes.

[TIG]

Works fine on my PC with Vista. Opens an app (.exe) or a file with it's assigned app...
Puzzling...