"read file" when using framework "Foundation"

AppleScript
#1

Many of my scripts include a block that reads the first eight bytes of a file in order to decide what to do with the file. This is a simplified version:

on open theDrop
	set dropItem to (item 1 of theDrop)
	set isWPDoc to false
	set isWPDoc to ((read file (dropItem as text) from 1 to 4 as data) is «data rdatFF575043»)
end open

I’m revising my scripts to use more recent technologies, and if I add these lines to the top:

use AppleScript version "2.4" -- Yosemite (10.10) or later
use scripting additions
use framework "Foundation"

then the script fails on the third “set” line with the error “Can’t make current application into type file” - which completely baffles me.

Is there some way I can read the first eight bytes of a file without producing this error, while still using current technologies?

#2

In this case you should be able to simply use:

on open theDrop
	set dropItem to (item 1 of theDrop)
	set isWPDoc to false
	set isWPDoc to ((read dropItem from 1 to 4 as data) is «data rdatFF575043»)
end open

But to answer the more general question, there’s an issue with using specifiers like file. The best solution is to use «class furl». So:

read (somePath as «class furl») ...

A furl is what’s returned from choose file name, for example.

#3

Thank you, Shane. That works perfectly. I’m revising all my scripts that use the “file read” routine.

What dismays me when I look at my twelve-year-old scripts is how needlessly complicated they are. I’m constantly coercing this into that and then finding the something of something else, when (if I had known what I was doing), I could have done it all in one step.

#4

Seems like you are implementing the terminal file command.
/Applications/Utilities/Terminal
man file

using the file command
#not so good when compared to filetype .doc
mac $ file Back.docx
Back.docx: Zip archive data, at least v2.0 to extract

mac $ file Newsletter-April,\ 2016.doc
Newsletter-April, 2016.doc: CDF V2 Document, Little Endian, Os: Windows, Version 6.1, Code page: 1252, Author: firstname lastname, Template: Normal, Last Saved By: FirstName, Revision Number: 2, Name of Creating Application: Microsoft Word 9.0, Total Editing Time: 04:00, Last Printed: Mon Apr 11 03:54:00 2016, Create Time/Date: Mon Apr 18 04:34:00 2016, Last Saved Time/Date: Mon Apr 18 04:34:00 2016, Number of Pages: 1, Number of Words: 846, Number of Characters: 4825, Security: 0
mac $