Re: [Proposal] New EUDC backend for macOS address book

[Jean-Christophe Helary <jean.christophe.helary@traduction-libre.org>]

> On Apr 28, 2020, at 1:10, Thomas Fitzsimmons <fitzsim@fitzsim.org> wrote:
> 
> Hi Alexander,
> 
> Alexander Adolf <alexander.adolf@condition-alpha.com> writes:
> 
>> I hence set out to write a new backend for EUDC to get access to macOS
>> address book contacts via AppleScript. The result is
>> `eudcb-macos-contacts.el', which is enclosed with this message, and
>> which I would kindly like to propose for inclusion as part of EUDC (and
>> replacing the existing `eudcb-mab.el').
> 
> Do you have a sense for how far back the AppleScript method will work?
> i.e., would it work on all systems on which eudcb-mab.el currently
> works?  Do you think we should maintain eudcb-mab and
> eudcb-macos-contacts in parallel, at least for a few releases, and
> recommend eudcb-macos-contacts to existing eudcb-mab users?

The application that is called in the applescript is called "Contacts".

Before July 2012, when macos 10.8 was released, it was called "Address Book".

So if the script wants to support machines with an OS older that 10.8 there will be a need to check the OS version and change the name of the application that is called.

I don't remember and can't find on the web whether there was an Address Book on systems before OSX, but even if there was, I don't think emacs supports such old proprietary systems.

Regarding the code itself, it looks simple enough that it would work on systems with old versions of Address Book but that would require some testing.

One could ask people on the AppleScript User list for their support, or some other place (MacScripters ?)

As far as I can tell, the Applescript itself (I've not tested the inclusion in the emacslisp code) works fine on the latest macos version.



Jean-Christophe Helary
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http://mac4translators.blogspot.com @brandelune