MacOS Version 12.3 NEURON installation icons fail

[nrnhines]

After updating to MacOS Version 12.3, double clicking on the neurondemo icon (and others) fails with:

The application "Terminal" can't be opened.
-1703

Note that one can start a Terminal manually and launch by typing neurondemo.

[nrnhines]

Something new in MacOS Version 12.3. From a Terminal window

hines@Michaels-MacBook-Pro-2 ~ % ls -al /Applications/Utilities
total 0
drwxr-xr-x   4 root  wheel  128 Mar 16 18:45 .
drwxrwxr-x  18 root  admin  576 Mar 16 20:12 ..
-rw-r--r--   1 root  wheel    0 Feb 26 02:05 .localized
drwxr-xr-x   3 root  wheel   96 Nov 10 10:58 XQuartz.app
hines@Michaels-MacBook-Pro-2 ~ % 

Though, looking via the Finder, there are a bunch of programs there, including Terminal. Again, from a Terminal,

hines@Michaels-MacBook-Pro-2 ~ % sudo open /Applications/Utilities/Terminal
Password:
The file /Applications/Utilities/Terminal does not exist.

[nrnhines]

This issue came to my attention from https://www.neuron.yale.edu/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=19374

[nrnhines]

I don't know it this will lead to a solution but:

After some testing on a Catalina system, I see more clearly what is happening.
Finder has a "Smart Folder" for "Applications" which provides the contents of both /Applications and /System/Applications. All representations of "Applications" from the Finder use this, including opening /Applications.
When you open /System/Applications, you are presented with just the contents of that directory. This should contain the software applications that were installed from the initial installation such as "App Store".
So both ls /System/Applications and open /System/Applications should have the same content. While running ls /Applications will show you the contents of that directory (normally user installed applications), open /Applications will use Finder's special Smart Folder to show all applications available.

I see thatTerminal.app is located in /System/Applications/Utilities.
open /Applications/Utilities opens a finder window that lists Terminal
but open /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app gives The file ... does not exist
but open /System/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app -n indeed opens a new Terminal window.

[nrnhines]

The problem seems to reduce to the fact that for MacOS 12.3

osascript -e 'tell application "Finder" to open file "Macintosh HD:Applications:NEURON:bin:macnrn.term"'

gives the error, even though the following works

open /Applications/NEURON/bin/macnrn.term

[nrnhines]

Looks like the solution is

hines@Michaels-MacBook-Pro-2 mac % git diff
diff --git a/src/mac/prototype_applescript_cmake.txt b/src/mac/prototype_applescript_cmake.txt
index 5f2788775..49be84f22 100644
--- a/src/mac/prototype_applescript_cmake.txt
+++ b/src/mac/prototype_applescript_cmake.txt
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ on mylaunch(farg)
                close access thefile
                
                set termfile to appdir & "bin:" & "macnrn.term"
-               open file termfile
+               tell application "Terminal" to open file termfile
                
        end tell

I guess it was a change needed for security. In looking around on the web, it appears that applescript's days are numbered.