st: using an external editor on Mac OS X

[Benjamin Hulley <bhulley@ucsd.edu>]

Hi All

I'm trying to integrate TextWrangler (a smaller BBedit) more closely 
with Stata and have written a couple of applescripts to pass a file or 
a selection of commands to Stata.  I invoke TextWrangler with the shell 
command and it works when creating a new file, but it does not work 
when invoking TextWrangler with out opening a new file.  Specifically, 
when I type:
.shell edit -c myfile.do
TextWrangler opens up with the new file "myfile.do", and I can use my 
applescripts to send the file back to Stata.   However, if I then type:
.shell edit -l
TextWrangler comes to the front and the Stata icon bounces in the dock 
(which it doesn't do if creating a new file).  The problem is that if I 
try to send the file back to Stata, the TextWrangler menu becomes 
grayed out and the commands do not execute until I manually switch to 
Stata.

I believe the problem is independent of the applescripts because 
Stata's behavior changes for the two different ways of invoking 
TextWrangler.

I'm sorry if this explanation is a little confusing, but does anyone 
have an idea why one way works and the other doesn't and a way around 
this problem?

Thanks in advance

Ben

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