1-1: User Interaction

BushelScript supports custom-built GUI commands as its primary mode of user interaction. Limited CLI interactions are also supported. Speech-based interactions are planned but have low priority.

GUI commands#

Interaction with the user is done primarily through various GUI commands, heavily inspired by those made available by AppleScript's StandardAdditions module.

In BushelScript, GUI commands are routed through a background application called "BushelGUIHost". This alleviates many of the inconveniences and security shortcomings of using the StandardAdditions module.

notification#

notification [<message>]
  [title <title>]
  [subtitle <subtitle>]
  [sound <sound name>]

Presents a banner-style notification.

message: The informative message text. Smallest and lowest down, can have the most detail. The exception is if there is no title to display (i.e., none is specified and the calling script has no name); if so, then this text appears as the title instead.
title: The title text. Largest and highest up, should provide appropriate context for the notification. Defaults to the name of the script, if any.
subtitle: The subtitle text. Subordinate to the title, and if present, should provide more specific or elaborated context for the notification. Often not used.
sound name: The name of the system sound to play when the notification is delivered.

alert#

alert [<heading>]
  [message <message>]
  [title <title>]

Presents an informative message box.

heading: The alert heading text. Displayed in bold font, should clearly indicate what this alert is for.
message: The alert message text. Displayed in normal font subordinate to the heading; can be used to explain why the heading is so, what might be done about it, etc.
title: The title of the alert window. Defaults to the name of the script, if any.

choose from#

choose from [ [list] <list> ]
  [prompt <prompt>]
  [title <title>]

Presents a list of choices and asks the user to choose from them.

list: The choices. Should be a list. If a list, each item is coerced to a string and displayed as a choice. Otherwise, the passed object is treated as a single atomic choice: coerced to a string and displayed as the single available item.
prompt: The text displayed above the list of choices. Should explain what choice is being made and, if applicable, why.
title: The title of the dialog window. Defaults to the name of the script, if any.

ask#

ask [ [prompt] <prompt> ]
  [ [for | as] <type> ]
  [title <title>]

Prompts the user to enter data.

prompt: The text displayed above the input area. Should explain what data is to be entered and, if applicable, why. Defaults to the generic "Please enter a value:".
type: The type of data requested as a type object. If absent or not a type object, defaults to string.
title: The title of the dialog window. Defaults to the name of the script, if any.