Turbocharge your scripting with PyObjC

Speakers: Greg Neagle

Level: Advanced, Lecture

Excerpt: Give your Python scripts amazing new abilities by utilizing Apple frameworks via the PyObjC bridge. Basic familiarity with Python or a similar high-level scripting language will be assumed.

Description: Python is a scripting language that is very popular among Mac admins. Several popular and useful open source Mac admin tools are written in Python; some examples include Munki, AutoPkg, Imagr, and AutoDMG. One of the attractions of using Python on macOS is access to PyObjC a set of libraries that allows the Python programmer to access many of Apple’s Cocoa frameworks. This enables the Mac admin to write a Python script that can do sophisticated things not possible in other scripting languages. Greg will demonstrate using Python and PyObjC to do a variety of tasks, including reading and writing macOS preferences, sending Notification Manager notifications, interacting with Touch ID on the new TouchBar-equipped Macs, and more. Basic familiarity with Python or a similar high-level scripting language will be assumed.


About the speaker

Greg Neagle (Twitter: @gregneagle) – Sr. Systems Engineer – Walt Disney Animation Studios

Greg is the engineer primarily responsible for deploying and managing OS X machines at Walt Disney Animation Studios, a studio with a long history of family entertainment reaching back to “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves” and forward to our latest films: “Zootopia” and “Moana”.

Disney Animation has released as open source several Mac management tools developed by Greg. Among those are Munki, a software deployment framework, Reposado, a platform-agnostic replacement for Apple’s Software Update service, and the “createOSXinstallerPkg” tool set. Greg is also a contributor to the popular AutoPkg tool.

Greg has presented on various aspects of OS X management at Macworld, Apple’s WWDC, the MacTech Conference, Penn State Mac Admins, and MacSysAdmin. He is a frequent contributor to MacTech Magazine.

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