How would I write the following applescript in Obj-C AppScript? ASTranslate was of no help =(

Question

The translation tool isn't able to translate this working code. I copied it out of a working script.

set pathToTemp to (POSIX path of ((path to desktop) as string))

-- change jpg to pict
tell application "Image Events"
    try
        launch
            set albumArt to open file (pathToTemp & "albumart.jpg")
            save albumArt as PICT in file (pathToTemp & "albumart.pict")
            --the first 512 bytes are the PICT header, so it reads from byte 513
            --this is to allow the image to be added to an iTunes track later.
            set albumArt to (read file (pathToTemp & "albumart.pict") from 513 as picture)
        close
    end try
end tell

The code is taking a jpg image, converting it to a PICT file, and then reading the file minus the header (the first 512 bytes). Later in the script, albumArt will be added to an iTunes track.

I tried translating the code (minus the comments), but ASTranslate froze for a good 2 minutes before giving me this:

Untranslated event 'earsffdr'

#import "IEGlue/IEGlue.h"
IEApplication *imageEvents = [IEApplication applicationWithName: @"Image Events"];
IELaunchCommand *cmd = [[imageEvents launch] ignoreReply];
id result = [cmd send];

#import "IEGlue/IEGlue.h"
IEApplication *imageEvents = [IEApplication applicationWithName: @"Image Events"];
IEReference *ref = [[imageEvents files] byName: @"/Users/Doom/Desktop/albumart.jpg"];
id result = [[ref open] send];

#import "IEGlue/IEGlue.h"
IEApplication *imageEvents = [IEApplication applicationWithName: @"Image Events"];
IEReference *ref = [[imageEvents images] byName: @"albumart.jpg"];
IESaveCommand *cmd = [[[ref save] in: [[imageEvents files] byName: @"/Users/Doom/Desktop/albumart.pict"]] as: [IEConstant PICT]];
id result = [cmd send];

'crdwrread'

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "objcrenderer.pyc", line 283, in renderCommand
KeyError: 'crdwrread'


'cascrgdut'

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "objcrenderer.pyc", line 283, in renderCommand
KeyError: 'cascrgdut'


'crdwrread'

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "objcrenderer.pyc", line 283, in renderCommand
KeyError: 'crdwrread'


Untranslated event 'rdwrread'

OK

I have no clue how to make sense of this.

Thanks for any and all help!

Answer 1

read is a Standard Additions command; ASTranslate doesn't support scripting additions, only scriptable applications, so you will have to translate it yourself.

Use ASDictionary to export the Standard Additions dictionary to HTML and create an objc-appscript glue (SAGlue). You can then use -[SAApplication init] to create a new SAApplication instance and send your read command to that.

Alternatively, you could skip Standard Additions completely and use NSData to read and slice the file and build the NSAppleEventDescriptor yourself.