Is window manipulation available in perl?

Is window manipulation available in perl?

[Robert Mecklenburg]

First, please excuse the newbie question.  I don't think this is
off-topic, but my judgement isn't the one that counts. ;-) I've done a
good bit of searching with google, faqs, and posting to
comp.lang.perl.misc, but can't figure this out...

I'm using the most recent cygwin port of perl (revision 5.0 version 6
subversion 1) on windows 2000.  I want to send "alt+f x" to an Outlook
Express window from a perl script.  It seems that ActiveState Perl can
do this with the Win32::Setupsup package, but that the vanilla perl
(or cygwin's perl) cannot do this?

I tried to install the Win32-CtrlGUI-0.22 package from cpan.org but it
requires Win32::Setupsup which is not on cpan.org.  I found this
package on perlring.org but it seems to require ppm.  I found
references to ppm at activestate.com but it appears to be a feature of
ActivePerl rather than of "just perl".

So the question is: "how to I send keystrokes to a Windows window with
cygwin Perl"?

I'm using cygwin tools heavily in this perl script and I'd hate to
have to use ActiveState perl.  Partly because I love cygwin and partly
because the path translation between a non-cygwin perl and cygwin
tools would introduce messiness I'd like to avoid.

Suggestions welcome. 
Thanks,
Robert Mecklenburg


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Re: Is window manipulation available in perl?

[Soren Andersen]

On 12 Feb 2002 at 9:04, Robert Mecklenburg wrote: 

> First, please excuse the newbie question.  I don't think this is
> off-topic, but my judgement isn't the one that counts. ;-) I've done a
> good bit of searching with google, faqs, and posting to
> comp.lang.perl.misc, but can't figure this out...
> 
> I'm using the most recent cygwin port of perl (revision 5.0 version 6
> subversion 1) on windows 2000.  I want to send "alt+f x" to an Outlook
> Express window from a perl script.  It seems that ActiveState Perl can
> do this with the Win32::Setupsup package, but that the vanilla perl
> (or cygwin's perl) cannot do this?

I am pretty sure they cannot; why would they? Perl doesn't come from Windoze; it comes from UNI*. 
Anything that Perl has been "taught" about running on Windows and manipulating 'doze features, has 
happened relatively recently (relative to Perl's origin point). And a great deal of that added 'doze 
functionality has been added by workers for ActiveState or rolled into the ActiveState releases tho 
originating earlier in someone's work (G. Sarathy for ex.). Credit where credit is due. 

> I tried to install the Win32-CtrlGUI-0.22 package from cpan.org but it
> requires Win32::Setupsup which is not on cpan.org.  I found this
> package on perlring.org but it seems to require ppm.  I found
> references to ppm at activestate.com but it appears to be a feature of
> ActivePerl rather than of "just perl".

Yes, ppm is an invention of the folks at ActiveState, specifically I think the major parts have been 
created by Murray Nesbitt. Look for ppm on CPAN. ppm is now distributed for everyone to use 
however they will (as a general- purpose utility; they envision it being used well beyond only for 
installation of Perl extentions). You can surely get ppm working on cygwin Perl with a bit of effort; it 
just isn't built-in like it is for AP. ALSO, please check the ppm file for "Win32::Setupsup" which 
might just be a gzipped-tarball inside a .zip file, with (maybe) a .ppd file and stuff? outside the tarball. 
Maybe not, too. But many ppm files are just an outer wrapper around a standard CPAN dist package, 
TTBOMK. If this is the case, you are in luck and you might just be able to build it by hand -- using the 
standard perl module building incantations of course. Specific instructions concerning which, BTW, 
would getting quite OT for this List, should they be brought up... 

> So the question is: "how to I send keystrokes to a Windows window with
> cygwin Perl"?

Absolutely likely you do not want to fruitlessly boogey with futility unless you happen to already be 
an accomplished Win32 programmer (and are ready to brave xs or learn 'Inline.pm'). You probably 
want to use the means that the existing Win32 C extentions to Perl (such as those packaged with 
ActivePerl) can provide. Look, cygwin Perl is not magical; it does not automatically have parallels to 
all the extra Win32 stuff that ActiveState has put into their product. It is what it is: an 'orthodox', 
useful, solid UNI*-ish *core* perl packaging. It's not a 'competitor' with AP + all the extensions that 
are commonly and conveniently installed with/to AP, and comparing the two is making an apples-and-
oranges mistake. 

Generically, two of the mechanisms Windows provides for interapp communication are OLE and the 
ancient DDE message protocol. If you are truly feeling creative and adventurous you might start 
there. But I have a feeling you will probably find you need to bite the bullet in the end, install 
ActivePerl and port your script to ActivePerl --  if you cannot get the necessary module support 
installed through Cygwin Perl, which you may well not be able to. Unless you are low of disk space or 
something, it isn't so bad. Installing AP will only take you a few minutes and after all its a good tool to 
have on hand sometimes. I run both; so do many others, I think. One thing that will do for you is 
motivate your programmer discipline in that you'll perforce become oriented towards writing very 
portable scripts that don't lazily over-rely on UNI*-POSIX'isms nor on Win32-isms. Not that there 
aren't specific occasions when your goal is to do something very platform-specific and so non-
portability cannot be avoided. 

HTH,     Soren Andersen 


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Re: Is window manipulation available in perl?

[alan napier]

If you want to use the cygwin perl you will have to download then 
extract each component of the cpan library modules to their respective 
directories: \doc \lib ect.

Much easier use the active perl which does all that for you. Just make 
sure the active perl comes before the cygwin perl in the windows path.

Robert Mecklenburg wrote:
> First, please excuse the newbie question.  I don't think this is
> off-topic, but my judgement isn't the one that counts. ;-) I've done a
> good bit of searching with google, faqs, and posting to
> comp.lang.perl.misc, but can't figure this out...
> 
> I'm using the most recent cygwin port of perl (revision 5.0 version 6
> subversion 1) on windows 2000.  I want to send "alt+f x" to an Outlook
> Express window from a perl script.  It seems that ActiveState Perl can
> do this with the Win32::Setupsup package, but that the vanilla perl
> (or cygwin's perl) cannot do this?
> 
> I tried to install the Win32-CtrlGUI-0.22 package from cpan.org but it
> requires Win32::Setupsup which is not on cpan.org.  I found this
> package on perlring.org but it seems to require ppm.  I found
> references to ppm at activestate.com but it appears to be a feature of
> ActivePerl rather than of "just perl".
> 
> So the question is: "how to I send keystrokes to a Windows window with
> cygwin Perl"?
> 
> I'm using cygwin tools heavily in this perl script and I'd hate to
> have to use ActiveState perl.  Partly because I love cygwin and partly
> because the path translation between a non-cygwin perl and cygwin
> tools would introduce messiness I'd like to avoid.
> 
> Suggestions welcome. 
> Thanks,
> Robert Mecklenburg
> 
> 
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> 


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Re: Is window manipulation available in perl?

[Gerrit P. Haase]

alan napier wrote:
> If you want to use the cygwin perl you will have to download then 
> extract each component of the cpan library modules to their respective 
> directories: \doc \lib ect.
> 
> Much easier use the active perl which does all that for you. Just make 
> sure the active perl comes before the cygwin perl in the windows path.
> 
> Robert Mecklenburg wrote:
> 
>> First, please excuse the newbie question.  I don't think this is
>> off-topic, but my judgement isn't the one that counts. ;-) I've done a
>> good bit of searching with google, faqs, and posting to
>> comp.lang.perl.misc, but can't figure this out...
>>
>> I'm using the most recent cygwin port of perl (revision 5.0 version 6
>> subversion 1) on windows 2000.  I want to send "alt+f x" to an Outlook
>> Express window from a perl script.  It seems that ActiveState Perl can
>> do this with the Win32::Setupsup package, but that the vanilla perl
>> (or cygwin's perl) cannot do this?
>>
>> I tried to install the Win32-CtrlGUI-0.22 package from cpan.org but it
>> requires Win32::Setupsup which is not on cpan.org.  I found this
>> package on perlring.org but it seems to require ppm.  I found
>> references to ppm at activestate.com but it appears to be a feature of
>> ActivePerl rather than of "just perl".
>>
>> So the question is: "how to I send keystrokes to a Windows window with
>> cygwin Perl"?
>>
>> I'm using cygwin tools heavily in this perl script and I'd hate to
>> have to use ActiveState perl.  Partly because I love cygwin and partly
>> because the path translation between a non-cygwin perl and cygwin
>> tools would introduce messiness I'd like to avoid.
>>
>> Suggestions welcome. Thanks,
>> Robert Mecklenburg


I don't know why this message shows up now, however Alan Napier posted
his reply to this list, today.  The original question is from 2002:
http://sources.redhat.com/ml/cygwin/2002-02/msg00587.html

I hope this issue is resolved now?


Gerrit
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RE: Is window manipulation available in perl?

[Dave Korn]

----Original Message----
>From: Gerrit P. Haase
>Sent: 02 August 2005 14:23


> I don't know why this message shows up now, however Alan Napier posted
> his reply to this list, today.  The original question is from 2002:
> http://sources.redhat.com/ml/cygwin/2002-02/msg00587.html


  I think it's probably quite easy not to realise exactly *how* long gmane's
retention period is!


    cheers,
      DaveK
-- 
Can't think of a witty .sigline today....


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Re: Is window manipulation available in perl?

[Reini Urban]

...
>>> So the question is: "how to I send keystrokes to a Windows window
>>> with cygwin Perl"?
...

> I don't know why this message shows up now, however Alan Napier posted
> his reply to this list, today.  The original question is from 2002:
> http://sources.redhat.com/ml/cygwin/2002-02/msg00587.html
>
> I hope this issue is resolved now?

No. Win32::CtrlGUI is dead, but Win32::GuiTest is alive and well.
This has the required SendKeys functionality, even a recorder.

-- 
Reini Urban
http://phpwiki.org/   http://xarch.tu-graz.ac.at/home/rurban/



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