a "Desktop Workflow" monad with Objective-C bindings.

a "Desktop Workflow" monad with Objective-C bindings.

includes bindings to:

• press keys with modifiers

• get/set the clipboard

• launch/focus applications

• get the name of the current application

• open URLs

for example:

-- | cut the currently highlighted region
cut :: (MonadWorkflow m) => m String
cut = do
 sendKeyChord [CommandModifier] XKey
 delay 250
 getClipboard

-- | transform the currently highlighted region, via the clipboard
transformClipboard :: (MonadWorkflow m) => (String -> String) -> m ()
transformClipboard f = do
 contents <- cut
 setClipboard (f contents)
 sendKeyChord [CommandModifier] VKey

see Workflow.OSX for several more examples

(if hackage won't build the docs, see them at http://sboosali.github.io/documentation/workflow-osx/index.html)

(this package is on hackage for convenience, but it's still a prerelease)

workflow-osx

a (free) monad, with Objective-C bindings, for "Workflow" actions.

for detailed examples, see the documentation on hackage https://hackage.haskell.org/package/workflow-osx or github (<http://sboosali.github.io/documentation/workflow-osx/index.html).

Issues

the build

foreign dependencies always complicate the build process. it's known to work with the following:

• OS

    $ sw_vers
    ProductName:	Mac OS X
    ProductVersion:	10.9.5
    BuildVersion:	13F34
  

• C compiler

    $ gcc --version
    Configured with: --prefix=/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr --with-gxx-include-dir=/usr/include/c++/4.2.1
    Apple LLVM version 6.0 (clang-600.0.51) (based on LLVM 3.5svn)
    Target: x86_64-apple-darwin13.4.0
    Thread model: posix
  

• Haskell compiler

    $ ghc --version 
    The Glorious Glasgow Haskell Compilation System, version 7.10.1
  

TODO

platform agnosticism

exploit the free monad's flexibility to define platform-agnostic workflows

problem: windows (Linux/Windows) versus processes (OS X)

problem: keyboards. Apple keyboards don't have the Windows key, Windows keyboards don't have the Apple key. some keyboards have a dozen random extra unbound keys.

automatic delay insertion

problem: currently, delays must be inserted manually. keyboard shortcuts in Emacs succeed with no delay. keyboard shortcuts in Chrome, like closing a tab with M-w, may drop without a long delay (like 250ms). furthermore, different actions need different delays between them (e.g. inserting text into Chrome can be done without delay).

parameterize Workflow on a keyboard type.