hey version 1.2.8

What is hey?

Installation

• unzip the archive by doubleclicking on hey-YYYYMMDD.zip or by dropping it on Expander
• open the right project file depending on the hardware platform and select 'Make' from the 'Project' menu to compile it
• you may want to move the executable (hey) to /boot/home/config/bin

Usage

hey v1.2.8, written by Attila Mezei (attila.mezei@mail.datanet.hu)
usage: hey [-s][-o] <app|signature|teamid> [let <specifier> do] <verb> <specifier_1> <of
           <specifier_n>>* [to <value>] [with name=<value> [and name=<value>]*]
where  <verb> : DO|GET|SET|COUNT|CREATE|DELETE|GETSUITES|QUIT|SAVE|LOAD|'what'
  <specifier> : [the] <property_name> [ <index> | name | "name" | '"name"' ]
      <index> : int | -int | '['int']' | '['-int']' | '['startint to end']'
      <value> : "string" | <integer> | <float> | bool(value) | int8(value)
                | int16(value) | int32(value) | float(value) | double(value)
                | BPoint(x,y) | BRect(l,t,r,b) | rgb_color(r,g,b,a) | file(path)
options: -s: silent
         -o: output result to stdout for easy parsing

The verb

• DO: B_EXECUTE_PROPERTY
• GET: B_GET_PROPERTY
• SET: B_SET_PROPERTY
• COUNT: B_COUNT_PROPERTIES
• CREATE: B_CREATE_PROPERTY
• DELETE: B_DELETE_PROPERTY
• GETSUITES: B_GET_SUPPORTED_SUITES
• QUIT: B_QUIT_REQUESTED
• SAVE: B_SAVE_REQUESTED
• LOAD: B_REFS_RECEIVED

Note that the verb is not case sensitive but the specifier names (e.g. "Frame", "Label"...) are. You can use 'what' constants directly, like

hey Application '_ABR'

LOAD and SAVE are actually not scripting commands, they are standard BeOS messages (B_REFS_RECEIVED and B_SAVE_REQUESTED). I included them for convenience. E.g. open a file in Application (the path can be relative or absolute):

hey Application load 'file(/boot/home/images/Be.jpg)'

hey Application save Window "Be.jpg"

The specifier

The specifier can be direct, index, reverse index, range or named. Reverse range is not supported. If you enter an index which consists of only digits, you can omit the square brackets:

hey Application get Window 0

The value

hey Application set .... to BPoint(100,100)

hey Application set .... to BPoint[100,100]
hey Application set .... to 'BPoint(100,100)'

DEBUG mode

History

• (Sander Stoks): Added command-line option -o which will output the "result" value in the reply message to stdout, so you can use it in shell scripting more easily: "hey Becasso get AspectRatio of Canvas 0" outputs Reply BMessage(B_REPLY): "result" (B_DOUBLE_TYPE) : 0.600 but "hey -o Becasso get AspectRatio of Canvas 0" outputs 0.600000 directly.

• by Sander Stoks: Made a fork since I don't think Attila still supports "hey", and because the latest version on BeBits seems to be 1.2.4. Changes w.r.t. 1.2.6: When an application returns an error on a message, hey now keeps iterating over applications with the same signature. This is useful because, for instance, Terminal starts as a new process for each instance, so it previously wouldn't work to move a specific Terminal window using hey. You can now say "hey Terminal set Frame of Window foo to BRect[...]".

• syntax extended by Sander Stoks to allow: "hey Application let Specifier do ..." allowing you to send messages directly to other handlers than the app itself. In cooperation with the new Application defined commands (note that some Be classes, e.g. BWindow, publish commands as well) this allows, for example: "hey NetPositive let Window 0 do MoveBy BPoint[10,10]" Note that this is partly redundant, since "hey NetPositive let Window 0 do get Title" duplicates "hey NetPositive get Title of Window 0" But with the old system, "hey NetPositive MoveBy of Window 0 with data=BPoint[10,10]" couldn't work ("MoveBy" is not defined by the Application itself).

• 'value_info' is supported in BPropertyInfo. This means when you send GETSUITES (B_GET_SUPPORTED_SUITES) the value info is printed after the property infos (name, kind, value, usage).
  You can also use application defined commands (as the verb) with hey:
  hey MyBackupApp Backup "Maui"
  

• The syntax is extended by Peter Folk to contain:
  do the x of y -3 of z '"1"'
  I.e. "do" => B_EXECUTE_PROPERTY, optional "the" makes direct specifiers more like english, bare reverse-index-specifiers are now handled, and named specifiers can contain only digits by quoting it (but make sure the shell passes the quotes through).
• Hey(target,const char*,reply) was previously limited to 100 tokens. It now uses a vector<> so it's only limited by available memory.
• Also, the archive name is now Y2K compliant =)

• new option: -s for silent processing (no reply or errors printed) AM

• Fixes by Marco Nelissen (marcone@xs4all.nl):
  
• fixed parsing of negative numbers
• fixed "with" syntax, which was broken (after a create, "with" would be taken as a specifier)

• compiled for R4 with minor modifications of BPropertyInfo usage

• the syntax is extended by Sander Stoks (sander@adamation.com) to contain
  with name= [and name= [...]]
  at the end of the command which will add additional data to the scripting message. E.g:
  hey Becasso create Canvas with name=MyCanvas and size=BRect(100,100,300,300)
  Also a small interpreter is included.
• Detailed printout of B_PROPERTY_INFO in BMessages. Better than BPropertyInfo::PrintToStream(). Also prints usage info for a property if defined.

• minor change from chrish@qnx.com to return -1 if an error is sent back in the reply message; also added B_COUNT_PROPERTIES support
• The range specifier sent to the target was 1 greater than it should've been. Fixed.
• 'hey' made the assumption that the first thread in a team will be the application thread (and therefore have the application's name). This was not always the case. Fix from Scott Lindsey (wombat@gobe.com).

• flattened BPropertyInfo is printed if found in the reply of B_GET_SUPPORTED_SUITES
• 1,2,3 and 4 character message constant is supported (e.g. '1', '12', '123', '1234')
• alpha is sent with rgb_color

• First public release

Examples

Get the messenger of an application (not useful if you use 'hey'):

	hey Network get Messenger

Get the suite of messages which the application can handle:

	hey Network getsuites

(BApplication & BHandler suites printed)

Get the name of the application

	hey Network get Name

Open the about window of the application

	hey Network '_ABR'

Get a window of the application (actually a messenger for the window)

	hey Network get Window [0]

or you can omit the square brackets when using an index:

	hey Network get Window 0

or you can specify a window name (with or without quotes):

	hey Network get Window "Network"

Get the suite of messages which the window can handle:

	hey Network getsuites of Window "Network"

(for the description of suite/vnd.Be-window see the BeBook)

Get the title, frame or other properties of the window:

	hey Network get Title of Window "Network"
	hey Network get Frame of Window "Network"

Set the title, frame or other properties of the window:

	hey Network set Title of Window "Network" to "hey is great"
	hey Network set Frame of Window "Network" to 'BRect(0,0,300,300)'

or you can use square brackets to avoid the 's:

	hey Network set Frame of Window "Network" to BRect[0,0,300,300]

Get a view from the window (actually a messenger for the view)

	hey Network get View 0 of Window "Network"

Get the suite of messages which the view can handle:

	hey Network getsuites of View 0 of Window "Network"

(for a description of suite/vnd.Be-view see the BeBook)

Get a view property:

	hey Network get Frame of View 0 of Window "Network"
	hey Network get Hidden of View 0 of View 0 of Window "Network"
	hey Network get Label of View 5 of View 0 of Window "Network"
	hey Network get Value of View 0 of View 2 of View 0 of Window "Network"
	hey Network get Text of View 2 of View 2 of View 0 of Window "Network"

Set a view property:

	hey Network set Frame of View 0 of Window "Network" to 'BRect(0,0,100,400)'
	hey Network set Hidden of View 0 of View 0 of Window "Network" to true
	hey Network set Label of View 5 of View 0 of Window "Network" to "Restart Something"
	hey Network set Value of View 0 of View 2 of View 0 of Window "Network" to 1
	hey Network set Text of View 2 of View 2 of View 0 of Window "Network" to "joe"

Close a window in an application

	hey Network quit Window "Network"

Quit an application

	hey Network quit