Thursday, July 8, 1999

This archive can always be obtained from:

    http://www.perl.com/CPAN/authors/id/CNANDOR/
    http://www.perl.com/CPAN/modules/by-module/Mac/

The file is a tarred, gzipped file.  Use Stuffit Expander or a
similar program (like my untargzipme, in the cpan-mac distribution)
to get at the archive.

Please let me know how well it does(n't) work, and any changes you'd 
like to see.

#============================================================================

NAME
    Mac::Apps::Launch - MacPerl module to launch applications

SYNOPSIS
        use Mac::Apps::Launch;
        my @apps = qw(R*ch Arch MPGP);
        my $path = "HD:System Folder:Finder";
        LaunchApps([@apps], 1) or warn $^E; # launch and switch to front
        LaunchApps([@apps])    or warn $^E; # launch and don't switch 
        LaunchApps($app, 1)    or warn $^E; # launch and switch to front
        LaunchSpecs($path, 1)  or warn $^E; # use path instead of app ID
        QuitApps(@apps)        or warn $^E; # quit all @apps
        QuitAllApps(@apps)     or warn $^E; # quit all except @apps
        IsRunning('MACS');                  # returns boolean for whether
                                            # given app ID is running
        SetFront('MACS')       or warn $^E; # set Finder to front
        Hide('MACS')           or warn $^E; # hide Finder
        Show('Finder', 1)      or warn $^E; # show Finder (1 == use name)

DESCRIPTION
    Simply launch or quit applications by their creator ID. The Finder can
    be quit in this way, though it cannot be launched in this way.

    This module is used by many other modules.

    This module as written does not work with MacPerls prior to 5.1.4r4.

EXPORT
    Exports functions `QuitApps', `QuitAllApps', and `LaunchApps',
    `IsRunning', `LaunchSpecs', `SetFront', `Hide', `Show'.

HISTORY
    v.1.70, June 4, 1999
        Cleaned up stuff. Added `SetFront', `Show', `Hide'. Fixed setting
        of `$^E'. Improved QuitAllApps to not quit only normal apps by
        checking `processType' for "APPL".

    v.1.60, September 28, 1998
        Added `LaunchSpecs'. Use this when the app does not have a unique
        app ID, the app is not really an app (like the Finder), or you
        have more than one instance of the app, and want to launch a
        particular one.

    v.1.50, September 16, 1998
        Added `IsRunning'.

    v.1.40, August 3, 1998
        Only launches application if not already open; e.g., won't launch
        newer version it finds if older version is open.

    v.1.31, May 18, 1998
        Added `AEDisposeDesc' call (D'oh!). Dunno why I forgot this.

    v.1.3, January 3, 1998
        General cleanup, rewrite of method implementation, no longer
        support versions prior to 5.1.4r4, addition of Quit methods,
        methods return undef on failure (most recent error in `$^E', but
        could be multiple errors; oh well).

AUTHOR
    Chris Nandor <pudge@pobox.com>, http://pudge.net/

    Copyright (c) 1999 Chris Nandor. All rights reserved. This program is
    free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the
    terms of the Artistic License, distributed with Perl.

VERSION
    Version 1.70 (June 4, 1999)

#============================================================================

-- 
Chris Nandor          mailto:pudge@pobox.com         http://pudge.net/
%PGPKey = ('B76E72AD', [1024, '0824090B CE73CA10  1FF77F13 8180B6B6'])
