[bruce]

I have written a simple 2 line script that, when used in terminal,
inputs a text file and outputs the text file with lines evened out to
about 70 characters and a carriage return at the end of each line. The
program uses the unix program fmt which is provided on my machine (OS
10.4.5). My question: is it hard to put this script into the TextEdit
toolbar? I envisage it as one of the options under the Format button.
I would write my text file using carriage returns at random, click the
button, and even out the script.

[Brad]

No, I do not believe you can do this. TextEdit's toolbar is not truly customizable like most other apps' toolbars and, even it was, the standard toolbars do not allow you to link to outside pieces of code.

[atomicbartbeans]

Maybe try an AppleScript?

[Brad]

Yeah, I though about mentioning that too. AppleScripts can execute shell commands like you're doing.

[rollercoaster375]

Well, if you install the dev tools, you could mess around with TextEdit. Apple includes the source (Which allowed me to unify TextEdit).

[Brad]

Holy moley. I totally forgot about that! In the earlier developer tools, Apple only included the source to a Carbonized version of SimpleText. Thanks for the reminder.

[bruce]

Thanks for your comments. I may look into this, although it seems
complicated. In my earlier, unix life, I enjoyed writing simple shell scripts
for one purpose or another. It would be nice to have some executable
shell scripts sitting, say, on the desktop, that one could execute
somehow with a click of the mouse and that would perhaps take as input
some other files sitting on the desktop.

[chucker]

I have written a simple 2 line script that, when used in terminal, inputs a text file and outputs the text file with lines evened out to about 70 characters and a carriage return at the end of each line.

Is that the reason all your posts don't use paragraphs properly?

[euain]

... It would be nice to have some executable shell scripts sitting, say, on the desktop, that one could execute somehow with a click of the mouse and that would perhaps take as input some other files sitting on the desktop.

Automator might be the tool you need for this?

[Majost]

Ooh, I know... an AppleScript Droplet. Just fix the shell path in this script, and save it as an application in AS. I think that this should work. Or at least it will give you enough to run on.

on run	display dialog ("Drag'n'drop text files to un-line-wrap them.")end runon open (txts)	repeat with the_file in txts		do shell script "/path/to/your/script '" & POSIX path of the_file & "'"	end repeatend open

You can also just type in the entire script into the AS file if you don't want to have it in a separate file. Just be careful with quoting and escaping things.