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:mod:`interfaces` --- The IAC protocol application bridge

.. index::
   single: interfaces


.. module:: interfaces
   :synopsis: Used as the bridge between the IAC protocol and plug-in implementations.

.. sectionauthor:: Risto Stevcev <risto1@gmail.com>.

The :mod:`interfaces` module is used as a bridge between plug-in implementations and the IAC protocol's implementation. The parser communicates directly to the plug-in through this module. It finds the application based on the value passed in as the scope. If the scope matches the name in the :mod:`interfaces` module, it reads the corresponding plug-in implementation.

Example

Here is an example of the :mod:`interfaces` module from version 0.2:

import iac.app.libreoffice.calc as localc
import iac.app.libreoffice.writer as lowriter
import iac.app.gnumeric as gnumeric

All of the application implementations are stored in the app/ folder. The folder is treated like a package so that Python can find the applications. All registered applications must be stored in this app/ folder and they must use the import iac.app. prefix in order to be registered properly by the protocol.

In order to avoid having to type iac.app.libreoffice.writer -> (expression) as the namespace for the scope for every command, you can give the shortcut name lowriter so that each command can simply be written as: lowriter -> (expression). To enable a shortcut name, add the import line to include "as (shortcut name)" like in the example shown above.

If the application contains multiple sub-applications, such as an office suite like LibreOffice, you can create a new package under the app/ folder with the name of your application. Then you can pass it in like this example with LibreOffice. Just be sure to include a blank __init__.py file in your application directory, or Python won't recognize it as a package and the IAC protocol won't be able to register it.

You can specify more than one application so that you can automate between multiple programs. If you don't want to modify interfaces.py directly, you can use the :mod:`modify_interfaces` module. See the :mod:`modify_interfaces` section for more details.

All application interfaces are commented out by default. Please uncomment any application you're interested in using, and read the installation instructions for that application in this documentation.