Visit another user's OS X account, but get a sane working environment, and set it back to whatever state they had it before when you're done.

visit

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# install:
# curl https://gist.githubusercontent.com/brandondrew/dbed1910ec9ec2a331de/raw/acbab5356c0022e54361e51eff3f9f44780ee842/visit | bash

# TODO: this script should
# * be writtten in Ruby
# * be a single script or app (`drop in` & `drop out`?)
# * generate the 'leave' script, based on current settings and differences
# * generate a complete state of defaults before your visit (so you can restore anything)
# * IF POSSIBLE, generate a leave script for any arbitrary change
# * be able to take any arbitrary set of key/value pairs (with domain! of course) and save the current value to leave.sh before setting the value to my preferred value

visit_script="/tmp/visit"
cat << 'END_VISITING_SCRIPT' >  "$visit_script"


##############################################################################################################
# First we determine how we found the place before visiting, so we can restore it to its original state:

leave_script="/tmp/leave"

original_tap_to_click_setting=$(defaults read com.apple.AppleMultitouchTrackpad Clicking)
original_natural_swiping_setting=$(defaults read -globalDomain com.apple.swipescrolldirection)

cat << END_LEAVING_SCRIPT >  "$leave_script" #/tmp/leave
##### LEAVING #####
# tap to click
defaults write com.apple.AppleMultitouchTrackpad Clicking "${original_tap_to_click_setting}"

# natural swiping direction (the metaphor is that you're touching the media, not the scrollbar)
defaults write -globalDomain com.apple.swipescrolldirection "${original_natural_swiping_setting}"

echo "You should be all set.  I've restored this user's previous settings."
END_LEAVING_SCRIPT
chmod u+x "${leave_script}"

echo "When you're ready to leave, just execute ${leave_script} from a shell"




##############################################################################################################
# then we set it up the way we want it, so that we can have a sane experience while we visit:


# tap to click
defaults write com.apple.AppleMultitouchTrackpad Clicking 1

# natural swiping direction (the metaphor is that you're touching the media, not the scrollbar)
defaults write -globalDomain com.apple.swipescrolldirection 1

# disable dashboard
# defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES

# expand Save dialogs by default:
# defaults write -g NSNavPanelExpandedStateForSaveMode -boolean true
END_VISITING_SCRIPT
chmod u+x "${visit_script}"
bash "${visit_script}"