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getting the user name

Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2026 6:29 pm
by dunbarx
I have always wondered about the (large) portion of the dictionary that is not in the, er, dictionary. The "messageMessages" comes to mind.

But simply finding the "username" is not straightforward, at least I believe. ChatGPT turned me on to "$USER" which gives the login name for my machine. Anyone know of a better way? It seems rather useful a tool, so one can tailor a stack to specific users, like I just needed to do.

Craig

Re: getting the user name

Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2026 9:12 pm
by SparkOut
In the Script Editor, you can toggle the visibility of Global (or System?) variables. Then in the variables list you'll see a lot of entries beginning with $ that provide lots of information about the user environment. They're mostly easy enough to work out what each provides, but I think they're in the dictionary.

Re: getting the user name

Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2026 4:49 am
by dunbarx
Sparkout.

I know about those variables; they get in my way for the most part. But I wish they were in the dictionary so I could search for them and also be presented with similar types. There are only a handful of entries that begin with "$".

I do not understand why the dictionary does not hold the entirety of the lexicon, even if there were a few filters to separate the several types into groups.

Craig