Is it possible to display a .txt file that has been just created by Matlab ? Basically make it pop up and become an active window (not in matlab, but open the text file as if you are opening it from a folder). If so, what is the code to accomplish that ? Using a MAC OS.
Perhaps system('notepad filename.txt') on Windows and system('open filename.txt') on Mac. When you use open, the OS will automatically use whatever application you have set as default for that file type. If you want to open it in a specific editor that is different from the default, replace open with the correct command (if on the path) or use the -a flag to open as:
system('open -a /full/path/to/application filename.txt')
Related
I have a non-open-source GUI program on OS X which has a menu button to open a file in one format (example.X), and another menu button to export a rendering of that file in another format (example.Y). This is not a conversion that could be done by myself or by any other tool I've found, as the rendering involves extensive digital audio synthesis.
I have a folder of 100 files of type X, and I want a convenient way to convert each .X file into a .Y file without manually opening and exporting each in the GUI. Literally just two simple commands which don't require interfacing with the GUI - one to open the file, and another to render it out.
Is there a general way to achieve the effect of opening a program, running some commands from the menu, and then exit via the command line?
Thanks!
I'd like to create a program which uses certain information given by my program's users and bakes this info into executables which can be used with Mac's "Open with...".
Since bash scripts cannot be used directly for Mac's "Open with..." functionality1, however, I'd like to find a way to wrap such a script (and as painlessly as possible).
I am aware Automator lets one build applications which include bash scripts and which work with "Open with...", but I want to be able to programmatically build both the script and the containing application (and I haven't found that Automator can accept command line arguments to compose applications).
What are some simple, lowest common denominator/open format approaches (without using Python, etc.) whereby I can do this (ideally in a way that could work on Linux as well)?
I found I was able to build an AppleScript application programmatically using osacompile (or apparently also possibly using Apple's JavaScript) using on open listener to listen for "Open with...", default file association, or dragged files (including when placed on the dock) and an on run listener to work with command line invocation. I could then use do shell script internally to invoke my desired file (in my case, calling the Node.js binary with a Node script and some arguments).
I was also able to do try/on error check for an input and if none were present do a choose file with prompt (specifically choose file with prompt "Prompt message" of type {"js"} for JS files) so that the application could be double-clicked without a file argument but yet trigger a file dialog (e.g., for use on the dock).
This is only under windows env.
As I know windows os identifies associated application of a particular file by file extension.
Like wise each file (binary) starting with corresponding symbols ("starting symbols"). For an example .JPG starts with ÿØÿà. Let say I open this .JPG file in a Hex editor or a Text editor and then I change that starting symbols into another file type. for an example I can change ÿØÿà to .Eߣ (.mkv). So when I double click on the .JPG the Windows Photo Viewer says there are some errors or similar message. So I need to get some information about the application that tries to open that kind of a file. If I can, I need to open that file using the application that associated with "starting symbols".
Briefly when I open .JPG I need to open a default video player .mkv files. But It may not work for this example. Because I changed only the "starting symbols" of my .JPG.
Please give me any idea to do this.
Thanks!
When you encrypt the file, give it a new extension. e.g. Picture.jpg becomes Picture.encrypted-jpg. You then register as the handler for encrypted-jpg, decrypt the file, then launch the normal jpg handler.
When the shell is asked to perform a verb on a file, the shell does not use the contents of the file to determine which app to pass it to. The file extension is what determines how the file will be treated.
You wish to use the contents of the file to influence which app processes a shell verb. In order to do so you would need to create a launcher app that reads the file header and then decides which app to pass the file on to. You would assign your launcher app as the handler app for all file extensions that you were interested in.
Although you could do this, it would be much easier just to set the file extension appropriately.
The proper way to do this sort of thing is to replace the files with reparse points.
The downside is that this involves writing a file system filter driver, i.e., an operating system extension, which is a whole level of trouble above and beyond ordinary application programming. (Since Windows already does file encryption, I doubt it would be worth the effort.)
I have a db file which I want to open using a firefox plugin.
However, I can't open the file.
I've also got other files like this with other file types.
I'm sure I've had this problem before, any ideas ?
I've tried...
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
killall Finder
But that didn't work.
Mac OS X displays all of the files in a particular folder on your disk in its Open/Save common dialogs, but it grays out the ones that are in a format that can't be opened by whatever program's Open/Save dialog you're browsing from.
The title of the dialog in the screenshot above gives away your problem. It says "Set Default Directory", which means it's only looking for a folder. The file "bc.db" is just that: a file. Whatever program you're trying to open it from isn't willing to accept it because a file is not interchangeable with a folder/directory. That explains why none of your other file types work, either. You need to choose a folder from that dialog to set as the default.
It's also worth nothing that the .DB extension means that file is a database file of some sort. It's very likely that it's in a proprietary format that can only be read by one particular application. Thus, even if you try to open it from the Finder, you're not likely to get very far. You need to figure out what program originally generated that file and try to open/use it there.
I'm creating a small ruby script to resize images and save them in a specified directory. I'd like the application to be as transparent as possible.
Is it possible to allow file dropping onto my Ruby script in all platforms? For instance, the user drags a file onto the script, which then takes the file path as an argument and resizes the image accordingly -- No GUI, no console, etc..
The behavior of drag & drop is dependent on the OS (and in case of Linux of the Window Manager), so no.
In Windows, you get the behavior you want for free. Just put a .rb file on the Desktop, and the files dragged onto it will be arguments to your script.
Another easy way for integrating with Windows is to write to registry entry HKLM\Software\Classes*.jpg\myhandler\command with the command you want to appear in the context menu of Windows Explorer (right click on a jpg file will popup a menu which will have your script in the menu).
I don't use drag & drop at all in Linux, so I wouldn't know how to do that there. I would expect it to have more security issues (permissions must be right, ...) but you could get there by creating a .desktop file, see http://standards.freedesktop.org/desktop-entry-spec/latest/ for the complete standard, or read some examples from ~/Desktop/*.desktop .
Platform dependend, so here for windowsusers and reference only.
Save the following to a .reg file and load it by doublecliking it, tested on Windows Vista and 7
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\rbfile\ShellEx\DropHandler]
#="{86C86720-42A0-1069-A2E8-08002B30309D}"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\rbwfile\ShellEx\DropHandler]
#="{86C86720-42A0-1069-A2E8-08002B30309D}"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\RubyFile\ShellEx\DropHandler]
#="{86C86720-42A0-1069-A2E8-08002B30309D}"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\RubyWFile\ShellEx\DropHandler]
#="{86C86720-42A0-1069-A2E8-08002B30309D}"
Such behavior would surely be platform specific, as drag-and-drop is implemented by the OS in this case, not by ruby.
So answering your question: no, it is not possible.
You can use platypus on os x to create a wrapper around your script.
http://sveinbjorn.org/platypus
regards
Claus