Shuck Plugin

Shuck Plugin

A Contextual Menu Manager plug-in for use with MacPerl and the Shuck documentation viewer. The plug-in adds a Shuck item to the contextual menu invoked by clicking in a selected word in a text file; choosing the Shuck item will send the selection to Shuck which - if the selection is a Perl keyword - will display the appropriate documentation. If Shuck is not already running, it will be launched.

In theory, this should work with any CMM-aware text-editing application. Just select a word, control-click on it, and choose the Shuck menu item. If your text editor is not normally CMM-aware, you may want to install Apple's Internet Address Detectors package, which includes code that adds Contextual Menu capabilities to almost any text-editing application. With IAD installed, you can even use the plugin within Shuck itself to leap around from definition to definition.

To use this, you will need MacOS 8, MacPerl, and SOMObjects for MacOS. I'm not sure where you can get the latter, but the chances are that it's already installed in your Extensions folder. If not, it's bundled with some of the other Contextual Menu plug-ins that you'll find scattered around the Internet. To install, simply drag the plug-in to your System Folder and let go, allowing the System to park it in the Contextual Menu Items folder for you. Reboot, and your Contextual Menu should be well and truly Shucked.

WARNING This is alpha software. It has not been extensively tested. You use it entirely at your own risk. The author is not liable for any damage it may do to you, your possessions, or your peace of mind. Freeware.

Click to download Shuck Plugin 0.1a [7K]

If you're interested in extending the plug-in or simply seeing how it works, you can also download the source code. Shuck Plugin was created with MetroWerks CodeWarrior 2 Pro. You will also need the CMM SDK from Apple.

Click to download Shuck Plugin 0.1a source code [20K]

An alternative to Shuck Plugin is Michael Schuerig's CMScript which is a CMM that allows you to run AppleScripts. You can simulate the effects of Shuck Plugin by writing a script with an 'on open()' handler that includes the line:

tell application "Shuck" to Show theSelection

Shuck Plugin may be marginally faster (until the new PowerPC-native AppleScript ships), but CMScript is more general and is a thoroughly useful tool anyway. Nothing, of course, stops you using both.