Show Character Palette script for OS X

Show_Character_Palette

property querylist : {"CharacterPalette"}
property app_is_up : missing value
set app_is_up to false
set frontapp to getFrontApplication()
repeat with i in querylist
	set the_ps to paragraphs of (do shell script "/bin/ps -acx")
	tid("/")
	repeat with _line in the_ps
		if _line is "" then
		else
			if _line contains i then
				set app_is_up to true
				set _pid to first word of _line
			end if
		end if
	end repeat
	tid("")
end repeat
if app_is_up then
	tell application "/System/Library/Input Methods/CharacterPalette.app" to quit
else
	tell application "/System/Library/Input Methods/CharacterPalette.app" to activate
end if
tell application frontapp to activate
on tid(s)
	set my text item delimiters to s
end tid

on getFrontApplication()
	(path to frontmost application) as text
end getFrontApplication