Re: How to run a GNAT program without starting a terminal session

[Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfraed@ix.netcom.com>]

On Wed, 18 Jul 2018 23:59:47 -0700 (PDT), Jerry <list_email@icloud.com>
declaimed the following:


>However, my "Beep" function uses Character'val(7), the ASCII bell--macOS normally interprets this to play the default system sound which for some reason is not making it to my speakers when run from Automator/Applescript but does work when run from terminal. But I have a function called Execute_Shell() which binds to the ?C command like this: pragma Import(C, system). Then if I put
>

	If your Beep() is relying upon the \a ("alert")

>>> ord("\a")
7
>>> 

CHARACTER, then the function must be sending it to some I/O stream.
Typically it is the console (stdout), and producing a sound is the
responsibility of the console when it SEES the \a byte.

	If you run the program in some form that redirects stdout to a
bit-bucket or file (or to a text window that does NOT interpret ASCII
control codes) then nothing will trigger to play a sound -- it is just a
non-printable character..

>say hello
>
>as the command string for Execute_Shell and drop it into the Automator workflow as described in your link, it _does_ work correctly. Applescript probably gets the same result.

	What does "work correctly" mean here? {after a short bit of Google} Do
you mean the text shows up in a log window? Log windows likely do not
interpret most control codes (probably nothing beyond <new-line>). Or is
"say" a voice synthesizer? If so, it is the "say" command itself that is
driving the speakers.


https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7408785/is-there-a-way-to-play-a-system-beep-on-mac-os
{Note that pretty much all examples are "command line" -- ie;
console/terminal -- programs; nothing that does not have an attached
console}

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3127977/how-to-make-the-hardware-beep-sound-in-mac-os-x-10-6
{Closest answer here is the response to use "afplay" with a sound file;
everything else is, again, console/terminal}



-- 
	Wulfraed                 Dennis Lee Bieber         AF6VN
	wlfraed@ix.netcom.com    HTTP://wlfraed.home.netcom.com/