sofar i have managed to get arround this by repeatedly retrieving and storing data from
commandLogger("/scoreboard players tag @e[type=" .. targetentity .. ",tag=!scanned,c=1] add scanning")
_,result = commandLogger("/entitydata @e[type=" .. targetentity .. ",tag=scanning] {}")
commandLogger("/scoreboard players tag @e[tag=scanning] add scanned")
commandLogger("/scoreboard players tag @e[tag=scanning] remove scanning")
but this is far from optimal
a mod that uses entities as its marker for where it should spawn special mobs isn't working so i decided to write a script that does the spawning for it, unfortunately i need to set nbt flags for the spawned entities to tell them where the thing they were spawned from is. i have everything working but i am having problems when it comes to getting the nbt of more than one entity as here is the thngs i have found
debug card unclaimed - dosn't return required text
debug card claimed - works great as long as i'm OK with it stopping if i'm offline(which i'm not)
command_block - only
the world.getMetadata() function from the debug card seems to be giving a string like minecraft:oak_stairs[facing=east,half=bottom,shape=straight] instead of a number which is what setBlock claims to need.
github of my project is at https://github.com/hpf3/open-computers-structure-scanner i am currently working on its construction componnent(though i will most likely have to make changes to its scanning too)