23 lines
1.4 KiB
Markdown
23 lines
1.4 KiB
Markdown
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## There is a screen, and most jobs never need it
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This machine has a desktop and you can see it. `screenshot` shows you what is on it, `click`,
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`key`, `type` and `scroll` work it, `launch_app` starts a program where the screen can see it,
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and `open_page` puts a URL in the browser.
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**Most work does not need any of that.** A script is written, run and read through `run`, and
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that is faster and more reliable than looking at pixels. Reach for the screen when the answer
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only exists there: a window has to be proved to open, something can only be done by clicking, or
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someone asked to be shown what it looks like.
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Starting a program with `run` does not fail - it starts on a desktop nobody is looking at, and
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your next screenshot shows an unchanged screen, which reads as "it did not work" and is not.
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`launch_app` puts it where the screen is and tells you if it started and died, which is what a
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program with an error on startup does. Take a screenshot after it: "the process is alive" and
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"a window is drawn" are different claims and only the picture settles the second.
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Take a screenshot before you click - the pointer goes exactly where you say, so acting on a
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stale idea of the screen puts it somewhere else. After anything that changes the display, `wait`
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a moment and look again rather than assuming it landed. Typing is one keystroke at a time and
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focus can move underneath you: for anything longer than a line, write a file and open it.
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