Front window of front application finder "exists" when it does not

[Nige_S]

@JeffHester

I'm a Script Debugger guy.

I do keep trying Script Debugger, but always fall back to Script Editor. It would probably be different if I did more AppleScripting, if I spent more time using Debugger, or if I wasn't too cheap to actually pay for it!

@JeffHester

I posted my version of @cdthomer 's suggestion above, which also works well.

Yes, sorry. Stream-of-consciousness happening and I didn't refer back. This might be slightly faster than the previous as it only calls notoriously slow "System Events" if one or more windows are open:

tell application "Finder"
	if front window exists then
		tell application "System Events"
			tell process "Finder"
				if enabled of menu item "Close Window" of menu "File" of menu bar 1 then
					display dialog "Window is active"
				else
					display dialog "Desktop is active, window(s) open"
				end if
			end tell
		end tell
	else
		display dialog "Desktop only"
	end if
end tell

@JeffHester

But I still find it curious that Front Window of Front Application Exists doesn't catch it.

I've a feeling that KM is "right" in that the Desktop does exist and is a window (in the broadest sense), while AppleScript is "wrong" in that it doesn't consider "desktop window" to be a window (or even have getable properties) even while stating that it inherits from "Finder window" and, as a result from "window".

But I'm no system API programmer, so pure conjecture on my part...