Simplify AppleScript handling

README.md

@@ -126,8 +126,9 @@ by going to:
 
 
 ```
-Settings -> Privacy & Security -> Emacs -> System Events
+System Settings -> Privacy & Security -> Automation -> Emacs -> System Events
 ```
+![](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/dd45a58f-b417-4255-8339-af7221ba8790)
 
 
 Also notice if you run emacs from  the terminal, `Osascript` is the only method that

auto-dark.el

@@ -94,44 +94,51 @@ In order to check if dark mode is enabled.  Return true if it is."
         (if (auto-dark--is-dark-mode-mac) 'dark 'light)
       (error "No AppleScript support available in this Emacs build.  Try setting `auto-dark-allow-osascript` to t"))))
 
+(defconst auto-dark--is-dark-mode-applescript
+  "tell application \"System Events\" to tell appearance preferences to return dark mode"
+  "This is AppleScript code that returns an AppleScript boolean value.
+It is “true” if the system is in dark mode, and “false” otherwise.")
+
+(defun auto-dark--handle-system-events-access (pattern err)
+  "Convert an ERR matching PATTERN into a warning about System Events access."
+  (if (equal pattern (cdr err))
+      (lwarn 'auto-dark
+             :warning
+             "Failed to get the mode from System Events. Please see the README \
+(https://github.com/LionyxML/auto-dark-emacs?tab=readme-ov-file#notes-for-macos-users) \
+for possible solutions")
+    (signal (car err) (cdr err))))
+
 (defun auto-dark--is-dark-mode-ns ()
   "Check if dark mode is enabled using `ns-do-applescript'."
   ;; FIXME: We shouldn’t need to check `fboundp' on every call, just when
   ;;        setting the detection method.
   (when (fboundp 'ns-do-applescript)
-    (string-equal "true" (ns-do-applescript "tell application \"System Events\"
-        tell appearance preferences
-                if (dark mode) then
-                        return \"true\"
-                else
-                        return \"false\"
-                end if
-        end tell
-end tell"))))
+    (condition-case err
+        ;; `ns-do-applescript' doesn’t support booleans, so we convert to an
+        ;; integer.
+        (/= 0
+            (ns-do-applescript (concat auto-dark--is-dark-mode-applescript
+                                       " as integer")))
+      (error
+       (auto-dark--handle-system-events-access '("AppleScript error 1") err)))))
 
 (defun auto-dark--is-dark-mode-mac ()
   "Check if dark mode is enabled using `mac-do-applescript'."
   ;; FIXME: We shouldn’t need to check `fboundp' on every call, just when
   ;;        setting the detection method.
   (when (fboundp 'mac-do-applescript)
-    (string-equal "\"true\""
-                  (mac-do-applescript "tell application \"System Events\"
-        tell appearance preferences
-                if (dark mode) then
-                        return \"true\"
-                else
-                        return \"false\"
-                end if
-        end tell
-end tell"))))
-
+    (condition-case err
+        (string-equal "true"
+                      (mac-do-applescript auto-dark--is-dark-mode-applescript))
+      (error
+       (auto-dark--handle-system-events-access '("AppleScript error 1") err)))))
 
 (defun auto-dark--is-dark-mode-osascript ()
-  "Invoke applescript using Emacs using external shell command;
+  "Invoke AppleScript using Emacs using external shell command;
 this is less efficient, but works for non-GUI Emacs."
-  (string-equal "true"
-                (string-trim (shell-command-to-string
-                              "osascript -e 'tell application \"System Events\" to tell appearance preferences to return dark mode'"))))
+  (equal '("true")
+         (process-lines "osascript" "-e" auto-dark--is-dark-mode-applescript)))
 
 (defun auto-dark--current-mode-dbus ()
   "Use Emacs built-in D-Bus function to determine if dark theme is enabled."