To take the load off StefanK, I’ve uploaded cscreen to ScriptBuilders. I am not the author, but that’s the only way I could load it.
You should be a bit wary of downloading executables from just anywhere - they can do mean things. If you want to check this copy or a copy you have received from another source, use this script after you unpack it (the hash in the script is from a known good copy I have from an independent source, and StefanK’s also checks “clean” in this test):
property hash : "dc3620e75bf55c302322be13982f2222"
set CS to POSIX path of (choose file with prompt "Choose the unZipped cscreen file")
set tHash to last word of (do shell script "md5 " & CS)
if tHash = hash then
display dialog CS & "'s check sum is correct" with icon 1
else
display dialog "The file " & CS & " has been altered!" with icon 0
end if
To find out how to use it:
set SCR to do shell script "Posix/Path/To/cscreen -h"
and to get screen resolutions for one or more screens:
set Cur to do shell script "Posix/Path/To/cscreen -I"
Thanks, Stefan! I can confirm that your first method works with Jaguar as well.
I’ve been trying to reduce it to just one shell script, but I’m not an expert. The following works on both my Jaguar and Tiger machines:
tell (do shell script "w=$(defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver DisplaySets | grep -w 'Width'); h=$(defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver DisplaySets | grep -w 'Height'); echo $w $h;") to set screenRes to {word 3 as integer, word ((count words) div 2 + 3) as integer}
It would be great if it didn’t have to include two ‘defaults reads’, but I haven’t been able to work out how to get by with just one.
The ‘grep’ in Tiger has a ‘-m’ option which allows you to specify how many matches are returned. This would allow a slight simplification of the AppleScript code, but doesn’t work in Jaguar:
tell (do shell script "w=$(defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver DisplaySets | grep -wm1 'Width'); h=$(defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver DisplaySets | grep -wm1 'Height'); echo $w $h;") to set screenRes to {word 3 as integer, word 6 as integer}
Thanks! Those both work on both systems and are more compact than “ and nearly twice as fast as “ my effort. The ‘grep’ version may possibly be very slightly faster than the ‘awk’, but it’s too close a call to be sure. They’re still several times slower than Jon’s Commands, but since that’s apparently not going to be ported for Intel machines, I’m keeping an eye on the alternatives!
set screenRes to screen size of beginning of (screen list starting with main screen) -- Needs Jon's Commands.
No problem, Adam, this returns the values for two screens ({x1, y1, x2, y2})
tell (do shell script "defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver DisplaySets | awk '/ Height =/||/ Width =/'") to set screenRes to {word 6 as integer, word 3 as integer, word 12 as integer, word 9 as integer}
I see that the very first key in the “com.apple.windowserver” domain is “CGSInterocitorSelectMode”. An interocitor, of course, is an alien device from the 1954 Sci-Fi film This Island Earth. There are quite a few people having fun with it on the Net. I quite enjoyed this effort. (Follow the “About this page” link for more information.)
When I read the link you gave and look back at CGSInterocitor’s value, mine is an integer set to zero. Is that universal or does it vary from country to country? If the latter, then it’s a quite suitable name for identifying “aliens” presuming the “0” means USA.
A cursory search through Apple Docs did not find much about com.apple.windowserver, however, and nothing about CGSInterocitor, so I have no idea what it’s for.
It errors in Jaguar (“Illegal operation”) but returns a list of numeric Unicode texts in Tiger. For a single screen, we’d need something like this:
tell (do shell script "defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver DisplaySets | sed -Ee '/^ *(Height|Width)/!d' -e 's/[^[:digit:]]*//g'") to set screenRes to {paragraph 2 as integer, paragraph 1 as integer}
Interestingly enough, after posting that, I tried changing the value to “1” to see what would happen and actually turned into an alien for a while. Fortunately, I was able to slither into a vat of dinitrogen tetrasulphide while I restored the backup and, after a good night’s sleep and a cup of tea, am apparently no worse off for the experience. But thank goodness I didn’t try the “2” setting! :o
After fiddling around for a short while, I’ve finally settled on this. It should hopefully return a list of records, but unfortunately I’m unable to test it on more than one display.
run script ("{" & (do shell script "defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver DisplaySets | sed -Ee '/^ *(Height|Width)/!d' -e 's/Height = (.*);/{height: \\1,/' -e 's/Width = (.*);/width: \\1},/' -e 's/ *$/¬/'")'s text 1 thru -3 & "}")
I presume that, as the last one died of an obscure error, this too will fail on Jaguar.
Edit: Thanks Stefan, my fault. The script has been changed.
FWIW, Extra Suites may come in handy when changing screenresolutions AND depth on a fly (here for single screen):
tell application "Extra Suites" to set g to ES list screen resolutions screen 0
set y to {}
repeat with x in g
if x is g's last item as string then set x to " depth " & x
set y to y & my substitute(x, "x", "*")
end repeat
tell application "System Events" to set fApp to some application process whose frontmost is true
beep 2
tell fApp
activate
set fWd to name of window 1
set fWd2 to name of front window
set nRes to (choose from list y default items {item 3 of y} with prompt "Set screen resolution to: ")
end tell
if nRes = false then return
set nRes to nRes as string
set {nH, nV, dept} to {nRes's word 1, nRes's word 3, nRes's word 5} --return {nH, nV}
tell application "Extra Suites"
set sInfo to ES screen info
if width of sInfo ≠nH and height of sInfo ≠nV then
ES set screen resolution width nH height nV depth dept
end if
set sInfo to ES screen info
set {W, H} to {sInfo's width, sInfo's height}
end tell
tell fApp
activate
try
open window 1
end try
try
open window fWd
end try
try
open window fWd2
end try
return name of window 1
end tell
on substitute(theText, toReplace, newText)
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to the toReplace
set the allTheText to every text item of theText
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to the newText
set theText to the allTheText as string
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ""
return theText
end substitute
