• osascript is terribly slow, may need to move to scripting bridge or “appscript” at http://appscript.sourceforge.net/objc-appscript/install.html
• TARball uploaded here with current script sources

With prolific usb to serial adapter, download Prolific driver for GUC32 prolific usb driver and change /System/Library/Extensions/ProlificUsbSerial.kext/Contents/Info.plist product and vendor ids to 8200 and 1367 respectively. Reload driver via sudo kextload /System/Library/Extensions/ProlificUsbSerial.kext

Download & extract lirc-0.8.2.

Edit setup.sh, change all references to ttyS0 to tty.usbserial. Edit configure and change ac_default_prefix to /opt/local (since this is what macports already uses). Edit configure and change default dev path (variable devdir) for darwin to /opt/local/lirc/dev (with no ending /).

run ./setup.sh choose creative infrablahblah Save and Configure. make make install

if make install fails rm /dev/lirc and ln /dev/lirc /opt/local/lirc/dev/lirc

Make directory /var/lock

Run irw, not lircd yet, and see if you get response on teh remote.

done.

* not sure why, but had a hard time on the powerpc 12“, specifying -d with lircd, THEN running irw works: lircd -d /dev/tty.usbserial;irw set perms on the lircd dev to 666 for normal user access. done.

What a fucking pain… LIRC cannot just send a keystroke to a Mac application (wouldn't expect it to be high on their list of to-do's), so it seems the best way is to write another AppleScript wrapper as I did for the iChat widget… FUN!

An example is like so for 0.scpt:

 tell application "System Events"
	
 	tell application "SlingPlayer" to activate
 	keystroke "0"

 end tell

and in /etc/lircrc file:

 begin
 prog = irexec
 button = 0
 config = osascript /Users/catherinezeidler/src/0.scpt
 end

Need to have either a .scpt file for every possible action, or a wrapper app that takes two args- one the application to send to, and two the key to send. Maybe something like “numbers.scpt” which can send 0-9 to any application.

Now- after a long spell of troubleshooting, I found a work around to an issue where one cannot pass the application name for a “tell” in applescript via a variable- it can be done, but not inside another Tell…

Here's the basic working example of a wrapper:

on run argv
	
	set argv1 to (item 1 of argv)
	set argv2 to (item 2 of argv)
	
	tell application argv1 to activate
	
	tell application "System Events"
		
		--tell application argv1 to activate  -- THIS ONE DOES NOT WORK
		keystroke argv2
		end tell
	
	return argv1 & argv2
	
end run

Encountered more problems when trying to Mute or change system volume, get errors like: “execution error: No user interaction allowed. (-1713)”

Too lazy to find a serious fix, there are many suggestions out there.

Someone else's volume up/down/mute applescripts are here: http://forum.maccast.com/index.php?showtopic=16462

property currentVol : output volume of (get volume settings)

if (output volume of (get volume settings) is 0) then
	set volume output volume currentVol
else
	set currentVol to output volume of (get volume settings)
	set volume output volume 0
end if

property currentVol : output volume of (get volume settings)

if (output volume of (get volume settings) is 0) then
	set volume output volume currentVol
else
	set tVolume to output volume of (get volume settings)
	set newVol to round (tVolume - 100 / 15)
	set volume output volume newVol
	set currentVol to output volume of (get volume settings)
end if

property currentVol : output volume of (get volume settings)

if (output volume of (get volume settings) is 0) then
	set volume output volume currentVol
else
	set tVolume to output volume of (get volume settings)
	set newVol to round (tVolume + 100 / 15)
	set volume output volume newVol
	set currentVol to output volume of (get volume settings)
end if

And finally, leaving this alone for a bit, my lircrc file looks like:

begin
 prog = irexec
 button = stop
 config = osascript /Users/catherinezeidler/src/keywrap.scpt SlingPlayer s
end
begin
 prog = irexec
 button = start
 config = open "/Applications/SlingPlayer.app"
end
begin
 prog = irexec
 button = eject
 config = ps ax |grep Sling |cut -b1-6 |xargs kill -15
end
begin
 prog = irexec
 button = 0
 config = osascript /Users/catherinezeidler/src/keywrap.scpt SlingPlayer 0
end
begin
 prog = irexec
 button = 1
 config = osascript /Users/catherinezeidler/src/keywrap.scpt SlingPlayer 1
end
begin
 prog = irexec
 button = 2
 config = osascript /Users/catherinezeidler/src/keywrap.scpt SlingPlayer 2
end
begin
 prog = irexec
 button = 3
 config = osascript /Users/catherinezeidler/src/keywrap.scpt SlingPlayer 3
end
begin
 prog = irexec
 button = 4
 config = osascript /Users/catherinezeidler/src/keywrap.scpt SlingPlayer 4
end
begin
 prog = irexec
 button = 5
 config = osascript /Users/catherinezeidler/src/keywrap.scpt SlingPlayer 5
end
begin
 prog = irexec
 button = 6
 config = osascript /Users/catherinezeidler/src/keywrap.scpt SlingPlayer 6
end
begin
 prog = irexec
 button = 7
 config = osascript /Users/catherinezeidler/src/keywrap.scpt SlingPlayer 7
end
begin
 prog = irexec
 button = 8
 config = osascript /Users/catherinezeidler/src/keywrap.scpt SlingPlayer 8
end
begin
 prog = irexec
 button = 9
 config = osascript /Users/catherinezeidler/src/keywrap.scpt SlingPlayer 9
end
begin
 prog = irexec
 button = pause
 config = osascript /Users/catherinezeidler/src/keywrap.scpt SlingPlayer u
end
begin
 prog = irexec
 button = play
 config = osascript /Users/catherinezeidler/src/keywrap.scpt SlingPlayer p
end
begin
 prog = irexec
 button = next
 config = osascript /Users/catherinezeidler/src/keywrap.scpt SlingPlayer l
end
begin
 prog = irexec
 button = ffwd
 config = osascript /Users/catherinezeidler/src/keywrap.scpt SlingPlayer f
end
begin
 prog = irexec
 button = rrev
 config = osascript /Users/catherinezeidler/src/keywrap.scpt SlingPlayer r
end
begin
 prog = irexec
 button = shift
 config = osascript /Users/catherinezeidler/src/keywrap.scpt SlingPlayer =
end
begin
 prog = irexec
 button = mouse
 config = osascript /Users/catherinezeidler/src/keywrap.scpt SlingPlayer -
end
begin
 prog = irexec
 button = mute
 config = osascript /Users/catherinezeidler/src/keywrap.scpt Volume m
end
begin
 prog = irexec
 button = vol+
 config = osascript /Users/catherinezeidler/src/keywrap.scpt Volume u
end
begin
 prog = irexec
 button = vol-
 config = osascript /Users/catherinezeidler/src/keywrap.scpt Volume d
end

And the wrapper now looks like:

property currentVol : output volume of (get volume settings)


on run argv
	
	set argv1 to (item 1 of argv)
	set argv2 to (item 2 of argv)
	
	if argv1 is not "Volume" then
		tell application argv1 to activate
		
		
		tell application "System Events"
			
			--tell application argv1 to activate
			--if argv2 = "1" then
			keystroke argv2
			--else
			--keystroke "2"
			--end if
			
			
		end tell
		--get id of application "SlingPlayer"
		return argv1 & argv2
	end if
	
	if argv1 = "Volume" then
		if argv2 = "m" then
			--MUTE
			if (output volume of (get volume settings) is 0) then
				tell application "System Events"
					set volume output volume currentVol
					return "Un-Muted"
				end tell
			else
				tell application "System Events"
					set currentVol to output volume of (get volume settings)
					set volume output volume 0
					return "Muted"
				end tell
			end if
		end if
		--Vol Up
		if argv2 = "u" then
			
			if (output volume of (get volume settings) is 0) then
				tell application "System Events"
					set volume output volume currentVol
				end tell
			else
				tell application "System Events"
					set tVolume to output volume of (get volume settings)
					set newVol to round (tVolume + 100 / 15)
					set volume output volume newVol
					set currentVol to output volume of (get volume settings)
				end tell
			end if
			
		end if
		--Vol Down
		if argv2 = "d" then
			
			if (output volume of (get volume settings) is 0) then
				tell application "System Events"
					set volume output volume currentVol
				end tell
			else
				tell application "System Events"
					set tVolume to output volume of (get volume settings)
					set newVol to round (tVolume - 100 / 15)
					set volume output volume newVol
					set currentVol to output volume of (get volume settings)
				end tell
			end if
			
		end if
		
	end if
end run

To-do: setup actions for iTunes and VLC, setup start button to rotate between apps iTunes, Sling, and VLC.