TeXShop ⇒ A question about Applescript Macros

[pvnotp]

Hello,

I am trying to write a macro that helps me enter grades for students into LaTeX. Right now I enter the grades via a complicated cut and paste from an Excel spreadsheet, but I'm hoping an Applescript macros can make it easy to enter them into LaTeX directly. The problem is, I really just discovered Applescript and I'm not even sure if what I want to do is possible. What I want is something like this macro:

Code: Select all

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--Applescript 
property texapp : "TeXShop"
tell application texapp
    set the setgrade to "\\setgrade{student}{"
    
    set q1 to display dialog "Student Name"  & return & "Quiz 1" default answer "0"
    set grade1 to the text returned of q1
    set the grade1 to setgrade & "1}{" & grade1 & "}" & return
    
    set q2 to display dialog "Student Name"  & return & "Quiz 2" default answer "0"
    set grade2 to the text returned of q2
    set the grade2 to setgrade & "2}{" & grade2 & "}" & return
    set the gradetext to grade1 & grade2
tell application "TeXShop" to set the content of the selection of the front document to gradetext
end tell
 
 
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which can be used with this document

Code: Select all

Code, edit and compile here:

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\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage{etoolbox}
\newcommand{\setgrade}[3]{
    \csedef{#1-grade-#2}{#3}
}
\setgrade{student}{1}{70}
\setgrade{student}{2}{88}
\begin{document}
\begin{tabular}{ l | c | c|}
& 1 & 2 \\ \hline Student & \csuse{student-grade-1}& \csuse{student-grade-2}\\ \hline
\end{tabular}
\end{document}
 
 
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Run LaTeX here

to enter in grades and display them.


Here's the catch: what I really need is a way for the Applescript dialogs to ask only for grades that have not yet been entered. So once the grade for Quiz 1 is entered, I don't want the script to ask for it when I run the macro again. If this were just straight LaTeX, I would just use something like \ifcsdef{student-grade-1}{... , but I presume its not possible to mix a command like that in with the Applescript.

Is there a way to do this with an Applescript macro? Is it possible to do this at all? If I'm barking up the wrong tree and there's a much simpler way to approach this problem, feel free to point me in a different direction. I'm not a programmer and fiddle around with this stuff largely in a vacuum, so I never know when I'm trying to do something the crazy way!

[josephwright]

I wonder if a better approach would be to save your Excel data as a plain text format (say CSV or tab separated) and to use pgfplotstable to read it in and build your table?