how to activate window, not app?

--Does this help?

tell application "Terminal"
 set visible of every window whose visible is true to false
 do script ""
end tell

-- to recover the original visible window(s), add this (the 5 second delay gives you time to assess the first part of the script):

delay 5
tell application "Terminal"
 set visible of every window whose visible is false to true
end tell

-- I think there can be a number of variations on this entire approach. I find that if I quit and then relaunch Terminal, the new Terminal window is not there (or not visible), but the original window(s) are once again visible.

Suppose that only three windows are open on your computer: two Safari windows in the background, and one TextEdit window at front. Now, if you click on one of the Safari windows, that window will become the frontmost window, and Safari the frontmost application, while the other Safari window will stay behind the TextEdit window. It seems to me impossible to do the same thing with AppleScript alone, even with GUI scripting.

Morevover, it seems to me that such a situation, where the windows of different applications are “interlaced”, is somewhat inconsistent with the usual behavior of Mac OS X. Normally, as soon as an application is activated, all of its windows should be brought in front of the windows of all the other applications.

_PLEASE NOTE_: A few hours ago I inadvertently posted this as a reply to Pierre L. (which is okay, as I'd like him to have a look at it as well). But, in the meantime, I've made a very small change to the Finisher_.app, and I've included that in this response -- it's probably totally unnecessary, but could conceivably improve the overall reliability of this approach. There is one other issue I'm a bit concerned about (although I haven't had any problems); but, if you should get an error message regarding the PID number ("doesn't exist"), let me know and I'll see what I can do about it.

No promises, and I've sort of lost track of your original goal, but you might try this double-pronged approach:

1) paste this script into your editor and save it as " Starter_" _as an application to the desktop_:
tell application "Terminal"
set visible of every window whose visible is true to false
do script ""
set WinID_ to item 1 of every window
end tell
tell application "Finisher_" to activate


2) Now paste the following script into a fresh editor window and save it as " Finisher_" _as an application to the desktop_:
set PIDlist_ to do shell script "ps -cx"
set PIDcnt_ to count paragraphs of PIDlist_
repeat with i_ from 1 to PIDcnt_
set TarPar_ to paragraph i_ of PIDlist_
if TarPar_ contains "Starter_.app" then
set Starter_PID to characters 1 through 5 of TarPar_ as string
exit repeat
end if
end repeat
tell application "Terminal" to activate
do shell script "kill " & Starter_PID


*From this point on, ignore the Finisher_.app on the desktop* (it probably can be saved elsewhere).

Now arrange the desktop as you wish, with Terminal windows you can afford to lose (but I don't expect you will). Then double-click "Starter_.app" and see what that buys you. Once again, the original Terminal windows should be retrievable by quitting and relaunching Terminal.

This works for me to bring up a new Terminal window (only) at the front of all windows of other applications, with Terminal in focus. And, once again, seems to me a lot of other things could be accomplished with this approach, but we'll see.

Is this consistent with what you are saying?

That's exactly what I was saying (or rather trying to say). On the other hand, taking your example, if you activate Script Editor not by clicking on ScriptEditor #1, but by pressing the TAB key four times (or seven times) while maintaining the ⌘ key down, both Script Editor #1 and Script Editor #2 come to the front, while all other windows retain their original relative positions. I was also trying to say that it seems impossible to me, using AppleScript (and even GUI scripting), to activate any application without automatically bringing all of its windows to the front.

Hello

As far as I know, what you're asking for is hard to accomplish even in Objective-C because Apple is not documenting the Window Server's basic APIs which are essential to globally control the windows' order and such.

If the window in question belongs to your own application, -(void)orderFront: of NSWindow will do what you want.
But, if I'm not mistaken, you cannot do the same thing for a Terminal's window from outside the Terminal's address space.
cf.
http://lists.apple.com/archives/cocoa-dev/2002/May/msg00609.html
http://lists.apple.com/archives/cocoa-dev/2002/May/msg00717.html
etc.

Someone has reverse engineered some undocumented APIs of Core Graphics for controlling windows globally.
Just FYI.
cf.
http://www.cocoadev.com/index.pl?CoreGraphicsPrivate

Also there's rather new official Quartz Window Services Reference.
However, these functions seem to only get some information about windows.
cf.
http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/documentation/Carbon/Reference/CGWindow_R eference/index.html

After all, I don't think it's a simple task for user to manipulate the global z-order of windows programmatically.
(I'd guess the Witch - http://www.manytricks.com/witch/ - is using undocumented APIs, though of course I may be wrong.)

Cheers,
H

Message was edited by: Hiroto (fixed typo)

--Odd, that's not the behavior I'm seeing. Is it possible you're combining the two parts of the script without removing the redundant tell & end tell commands? Try the script below exactly as shown -- to which I've added a command that hopefully will make the new Terminal window open at the front (but note my comment about the initial relative positions of the Terminal and script editor applications).

--If this works, I'd suggest you make a new post about the Safari issue.

tell application "Terminal"
 set visible of every window whose visible is true to false
 tell application "System Events" to keystroke tab using command down -- which will work if Terminal is the app immediately "behind" the script editor app you're using. (The script editor is always trying to hog center stage -- after all, it's the application you're last using.)
 
 do script ""
 
 delay 10 -- (or however much time you need)
 
 set visible of every window whose visible is false to true
 
end tell

… activate a window without activating all the other windows…

Oops… That's not what I had in mind. Let's try again.

I think (but I'd like to be wrong) that it is impossible, using AppleScript alone, to activate a window without bringing all the other windows of the same application in front of the windows of all the other applications.

No promises, and I've sort of lost track of your original goal, but you might try this double-pronged approach:

1) paste this script into your editor and save it as " Starter_" as an application to the desktop:

tell application "Terminal"
 set visible of every window whose visible is true to false
 do script ""
 set WinID_ to item 1 of every window
end tell
tell application "Finisher_" to activate

2) Now paste the following script into a fresh editor window and save it as " Finisher_" as an application to the desktop:

set PIDlist_ to do shell script "ps -cx"
set PIDcnt_ to count paragraphs of PIDlist_
repeat with i_ from 1 to PIDcnt_
 set TarPar_ to paragraph i_ of PIDlist_
 if TarPar_ contains "Starter_.app" then
 set Starter_PID to characters 1 through 5 of TarPar_ as string
 end if
end repeat
tell application "Terminal" to activate
do shell script "kill " & Starter_PID

*From this point on, ignore the Finisher_.app on the desktop* (it probably can be saved elsewhere).

Now arrange the desktop as you wish, with Terminal windows you can afford to lose (but I don't expect you will). Then double-click "Starter_.app" and see what that buys you. Once again, the original Terminal windows should be retrievable by quitting and relaunching Terminal.

This works for me to bring up a new Terminal window (only) at the front of all windows of other applications, with Terminal in focus. And, once again, seems to me a lot of other things could be accomplished with this approach, but we'll see.

One more thing. I also think (but I'd like to be wrong) that it is impossible, using AppleScript alone, to activate a window without activating all the other windows of the same application.

I don't have time to get into this right now, but if you have a long look at http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2207030&tstart=15 the answer may be lurking there -- particularly in one of Pierre L.'s responses

I'm not certain you are correct on that. I think I presently have the following windows "interlaced" on the desktop, rearmost to frontmost:

12) Script Debugger #1
11) TextEdit #1
10) Safari #1
9) Mail
8) Script Editor #1
7) Script Debugger #2
6) Finder
5) Script Editor #2
4) TextEdit #2
3) Script Debugger #3
2) Firefox
1) Safari #2

Now, if I click on Script Editor #1 (originally #8 overall), it becomes frontmost while all other windows move back a step but retain their original relative positions. If I now click on the window originally #1 overall (this window, in fact), it regains its frontmost position but Script Editor #1 now assumes the #2 overall position -- but all other windows retain their original relative positions.

If I do the above routine starting with Safari #1, an identical scenario ensues.

Is this consistent with what you are saying?

(Excuse me, I need to find a concrete wall to bang my head against!)

Disagree; this is merely one aspect of the usual behavior, and one we've all come to expect at that.

You're probably right. But I sometimes find it annoying not to be able for example to bring all of my stickies to the front by clicking on just one of them.