A funny bug with the pair Numbers + AppleScript

Question

*Bug ID# 7973914*
Summary:
Trying to delete rows in a Numbers table thru AppleScript issue an erroneous error.
Steps to Reproduce:
Create a new Numbers document and run this script :
set t_name to "testIfEmpty"
tell application "Numbers" to tell document 1 to tell sheet 1
if not (exists table t_name) then
make new table with properties {name:t_name, row count:1, column count:1}
end if
delay 0.2
set tProps to get properties of table t_name
set nbr to (row count of tProps) - 1
if nbr > 0 then
try
repeat nbr times
delete row 1 of table t_name
end repeat
on error errMsg number errNbr
display dialog "What's the need for this error ?" & return & return & "error number : " & errNbr & return & errMsg & return & return & "Click the OK button" & return & "and everything will behave flawlessly." buttons {"OK"}
end try
end if
set nbr to (column count of tProps) - 1
if nbr > 0 then
repeat nbr times
delete column 1 of table t_name
end repeat
end if
end tell
Expected Results:
As we may delete the rows by hand, the script is supposed to do its job with no error.
Actual Results:
When it remains two rows, the script issue an error.
When we click the OK button, it continue and it does what it was designed to do.
Regression:
At this time, in real life I keep only :
try
repeat nbr times
delete row 1 of table t_name
end repeat
end try
in the script but I don't like to encounter a meaningless error message
May you get rid of that ?
I wish to add that I am unable to think that getting a 2 * 2 cells table when asking for a 1 * 1 one is a normal behaviour !
Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) mercredi 12 mai 2010 17:09:37

Answer 1

For sure, with remove there is no error message
but the dictionary is clear :
A row, as well as a column is an item.
I would accept that the app refuse to execute the command delete row x or delete column y.
It accepts to delete rows 150 thru 3 but when there are only two rows, it refuses to delete one.
In my code, I delete row 1 because I want a table with only a standard cell.
There is no logic in the fact that I may delete column 1 with no errror message but can't do the same with row 1.
The proof that there is no reason is of course that with the try / end try enclosing the loop, the row is correctly delete. The script just ignores the reported error.
It's always wrong to flag an error when there isn't one.
The dictionary describes the function duplicate which is supposed to apply to items.
I was grinding when I discovered that it refuses to duplicate a table or a sheet but at least, it's concistent. It doesn't do 99% of the job and claims "you are fool to ask me to do that" for the last percent.
Delete / Remove isn't the unique odd pair.
I got the same kind of problem in several apps with Copy / Duplicate.
Sometimes they behave the same. Sometimes, one is completely rejected
and, worse case, sometimes one of them behave well most of the time but not always.
I think that it would be correct to
(1) edit the code so that both behave correctly in 100% of cases
or
(2) edit the code so that the 99% one completely reject the call
This said, I'm definitely pig-headed but I'm not completely foolish so,I will edit my script and use Remove
PS :
I added these two lines to my report :
I forgot to write that replacing Delete by Remove get rid of the error message.
But there is no reason to issue one with delete.
Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) mercredi 12 mai 2010 18:33:07