RE: What's the biggest barrier to wider AS adoption?
RE: What's the biggest barrier to wider AS adoption?
- Subject: RE: What's the biggest barrier to wider AS adoption?
- From: Doug McNutt <email@hidden>
- Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2001 19:53:28 -0600
Allow me to attempt to answer with a quote from another thread:
At 18:23 -0600 9/23/01, Rachel Cogent wrote:
I am attempting to make a list of all the files in a folder and subfolders,
however the "entire contents of" returns an empty list. I have looked all
over the Finder dictionary how to do this. does it say this stuff anywhere
in plain language? Is this how it is, every little step of the way is a huge
obstacle? Please tell me there is a way to learn this stuff without posting
a question and waiting for every little modification.
My personal biggest reason for not using AppleScript is the very
simple lack of documentation. It is a pain in the proverbial donkey's
butt to figure out just how to express yourself. "Natural English" is
a joke. Raw C or C++ is easier to understand. Guessing what phrase
will be understood is difficult and AppleScript is simply not
capable, in a human sense, of second guessing what I have in mind
when I speak the English I learned in 1940.
In MPW this user's question is simple - two lines:
directory diskname:directory:
files
or
files -l # if you want to know a lot of details
or
files -r # if you want to delve into subdirectories
and MPW is now free from Apple at:
ftp://ftp.apple.com/developer/Tool_Chest/Core_Mac_OS_Tools/MPW_etc./MPW-GM_Images/
MacPerl, and now real perl in OS neXt, are better. The MPW scripting
language, though different from absolutely everyone else's, is at
least documented.
It is possible to create and then send interapplication communication
events in C, MacPerl, perl, or MPW, but it's impossible to discover
the appropriate codes from the "dictionary" of an application. It's
equally impossible to guess just what verbiage will persuade
AppleScript to execute without generating some obscure error.
Object-oriented methods and classes may make sense somewhere but if
you want a scripting language easily usable by people who just want
to get things done they're simply not the right answer.
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