[diamondsw]

Hello, everyone. I'm trying to add an alias to my tcshrc file to run a simple script. The script is simply:

tell application "Finder" to set visible of every process whose visible is true and name is not "Finder" to false

Which in effect hides everything except the Finder. My problem is that no matter how I escape characters, use double and single quotes, or split the lines, I can't seem to come up with an alias that gets by the interpreter. Here is the line I've been working with:

alias hide 'osascript -e "tell application \"Finder\" to set visible of every process whose visible is true and name is not \"Finder\" to false"'

Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong here?

[clarkgoble]

Probably easier to put the applescript in its own file saved as a .scrpt (or whatever the extension is) in ~/bin and then call that with your alias.

[diamondsw]

Originally posted by clarkgoble:
Probably easier to put the applescript in its own file saved as a .scrpt (or whatever the extension is) in ~/bin and then call that with your alias.

I can do that, of course, but it really shouldn't be necessary for a one-line AppleScript. I'd much rather know that by just copying over my tcshrc that I have everything.

[Rainy Day]

Originally posted by diamondsw:
alias hide 'osascript -e "tell application \"Finder\" to set visible of every process whose visible is true and name is not \"Finder\" to false"'

Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong here?

Hmmm... works just fine in bash (assuming you add an "=" after "hide", that is, as per bash alias syntax). Your quoting seems to be correct. Have no idea why it's not working for you.

[diamondsw]

Originally posted by Rainy Day:
Hmmm... works just fine in bash (assuming you add an "=" after "hide", that is, as per bash alias syntax). Your quoting seems to be correct. Have no idea why it's not working for you.

Interesting - so it's limited to some funkiness in the tcsh... Man, that could be ugly. I'll look up some tcsh references.

Thanks!

[Moonray]

I think it's indeed the way you quote the quotes. Try:

alias hide 'osascript -e "tell application "\""Finder"\"" to set visible of every process whose visible is true and name is not "\""Finder"\"" to false"'

Read "\"" as:
" - leave the doublequote modus
\" - insert a double quote
" - enter the doublequote modus again

-

[diamondsw]

Originally posted by Moonray:
I think it's indeed the way you quote the quotes. Try:

alias hide 'osascript -e "tell application "\""Finder"\"" to set visible of every process whose visible is true and name is not "\""Finder"\"" to false"'

Read "\"" as:
" - leave the doublequote modus
\" - insert a double quote
" - enter the doublequote modus again

-

Wouldn't that screw up the osascript command? I'll try it later when I have the chance. In the meantime, I found an ugly solution (and this is all due to tcsh not handling nested quotes well at all ):

set DQ = '"'
alias hide 'osascript -e "tell application ${DQ}Finder${DQ}" -e "activate" -e "set visible of every process whose visible is true and name is not ${DQ}Finder${DQ} to false" -e "end tell"'

[Moonray]

Originally posted by diamondsw:
Wouldn't that screw up the osascript command? I'll try it later when I have the chance.

The -e parameter expects "one word" as script. You can put one word together in tcsh if you quote at least all parts that contain spaces (or" "only" "the" "spaces).

In the meantime, I found an ugly solution (and this is all due to tcsh not handling nested quotes well at all ):

Nested quotes are handled fine, just quoting quotes within quotes with a backslash does not work. So you have to end quote mode before you insert a quoted quote and start quote mode again but this is by design. There's a shell variable you can set to get \" working within quotes.

set DQ = '"'
alias hide 'osascript -e "tell application ${DQ}Finder${DQ}" -e "activate" -e "set visible of every process whose visible is true and name is not ${DQ}Finder${DQ} to false" -e "end tell"'

Looks a bit ... ehh ... weird

-

[diamondsw]

Originally posted by Moonray:
The -e parameter expects "one word" as script. You can put one word together in tcsh if you quote at least all parts that contain spaces (or" "only" "the" "spaces).

Nested quotes are handled fine, just quoting quotes within quotes with a backslash does not work. So you have to end quote mode before you insert a quoted quote and start quote mode again but this is by design. There's a shell variable you can set to get \" working within quotes.

-

Thanks a lot! You learn something new every day in the UNIX forum.

Looks a bit ... ehh ... weird

That it does, that it does.