Re: Proper way of connecting to apps

[Richard Frith-Macdonald]

On Saturday, June 21, 2003, at 01:34  am, Stefan Urbanek wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Is there some official way of connecting to application objects?

NSConnection.

> I know that i can use NSConnection, however that is not 'the right and 
> clean way'.

Of course it is ... that's just what NSConnection is for.

> I want something like this: [workspace 
> connectApplication:'ApplicationName'] that will return distant proxy 
> for application representative object (it should be application itself 
> or something that forwarsd to the app). If the app is not running it 
> should be launched. Wait for it to be launched and then retry 
> connecting.

To connect to an app ...
[NSConnection -rootProxyForConnectionWithRegisteredName:host:]
To launch an app if it is not already running ...
[NSWorkspace -launchApplication:]

> Moreover, in the future we can add mechanism/interface for using 
> another object than app itself if authors of the app care about 
> security. But it is not necessary at the moment.

That's already there ... the private GSListener class is used to handle 
standard application methods, pasteboard/service requests, and 
forwarding of other methods to the application delegate.  It would need 
to be extended a little to provide real security (eg with a method to 
register the names of methods which are allowed to be forwarded).

> I think this method can be very useful gnustep extension to support 
> application services and better cooperation of applications. ( 
> http://wiki.gnustep.org/index.php/Application%20Services )

It's not an extension ... it's standard.