Push for applescript
Push for applescript
- Subject: Push for applescript
- From: Joshua Whalen <email@hidden>
- Date: Sat, 3 Feb 2001 00:39:49 -0500
Dear friends:
As someone running OS X beta mostly to see how hard it's going to
be to port some scripts that I wrote, I sympathize. HOWEVER... I think some
of these posts are mourning a death that has been somewhat exagerated. To
put your minds at ease, if you are running OS X beta, try downloading
Create! from Stone Design (can't recall the URL offhand. There's a link on
www.stepwise.com that points to it, in the new apps section) and check out
the recordability and sample scripts.
I remember seeing this kind of pessimism about the finder, and
about the entire suite of toolbox apps when Amelio announced Rhapsody, and
the news has only gotten better since then. I'm not saying pipe down, by
all means, PIPE UP! the louder the better! No one can give you what they
don't know you want! But really... for an early beta, now more than six
months old, I don't really think the support is THAT bad vis a vis
Applescript. Heck, I remember when applescript support in OS 7 was worse
(well, almost) and that was only 6 years ago. What were there, maybe two
dozen scriptable apps in those days? Not now! A mere two years ago,
Applescript was something Apple would admit the MAc had with a caveat that
it "wasn't really good for much". Now they have a site, and a mailing l
ist, and they Talk about it, a lot! It's not being treated like product
that's headed for the gallows by any means. Now, there are things I would
like to see implemented too. An OSA Shell or Ashell that takes Applescript
commands like C shell does C commands. The ability to run applescripts with
Cron when no one is logged in. Cool stuff. And I think I will see it, and
soon! The beta currently supports the following shell commands:
osacompile(1) - compile OSA scripts
osalang(1) - information about installed OSA languages
osascript(1) - execute OSA scripts
(type "apropos osa" at the prompt to see this same list on your very own
computer. Wow.)
Some of this does not seem to work very well right now. But it didn;t just
get there by itself. Someone had to put it there, and it certainly didn;t
get ported over from NeXT! So someone iworking on this, and in typical
"Second coming of Steve" style, no one is talking about it because it isn't
ready. When it is, they'll make lots of noise, and until then, they won;t
say a word. Our job is making lots of noisy sufggestions so when it is
done, it is done just the way we want it. Anyone care to forward this
entire thread to "email@hidden" ? That's where clever suggestions
should go. Pessimism, on the other hand, goes in that cute little 'can'
icon on the bottom right corner of your monitor.
Au revoir!
Joshua
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"A reasonable man observes the state of things around
him, and adapts his wants and desires to conform
accordingly. An unreasonable man seeks to cause the
state of things to conform to his wants and desires.
Therefor, all progress is the work of unreasonable
men." - Apprx. G.B. Shaw
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"Just what the hell do you mean, be reasonable? When
has anyone ever accomplished anything significant by
doing that?" - Joshua
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