that whole attachability thing ( no jokes embedded )
that whole attachability thing ( no jokes embedded )
- Subject: that whole attachability thing ( no jokes embedded )
- From: Olof <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 08 Feb 2001 13:00:12 -0800
I've been kind of amused by this discussion, having four years ago been
befuddled by the contradictions in Apple documentation about what the
different terms mean. Yes, the documentation is self-contradicting and
confusing.
Like the "what's the best way of investigating the meaning of AppleScript
4-byte codes" discussion, this is a clear case of "If Apple had been
updating AppleScript documentation at all in the past five years, no one
would be arguing about it". Instead, we've got a top ten list of sources
for "more-or-less official" AppleScript documentation:
10) The who-knows-how-many-years-old AppleScript Language Guide and
AppleEvent Registry
9) Articles in highly respected and award-winning, but unprofitable and
therefore dead, technical journals
8) The informative release notes for AppleScript 1.4.3, 1.5.5 and 1.6b3
( Thanks Chris ! )
7) man pages in MacOS X
6) Type your question into a Smile text window, select it and hit <enter>
(feature will be in next release)
5) Introspection within JBindery
4) Kon and Bal and Sal and Cal ( and Chris, Chris, Andy, Ed, Len, Jon and
<<your name here>> )
3) The all-seeing missing "i" from the MACSCRPT list (that's what that thing
on a US one dollar bill is...)
2) The Frontier User's Guide ( a.k.a. "the Manifesto" )
And the number one source for "more-or-less official" AppleScript
documentation is:
1) Nonexistant, because documentation is for programmers, and Scripting
isn't programming.
But I digress. Scripters need documentation as much as programmers do, and
BECAUSE of that very thin line between programming and scripting, its even
more important that we have documentation that helps us figure out all this
terminology in a way we can agree on (I mean, I've figured it out for
myself, but that doesn't mean anyone agrees with me). Rumor has it that
we're going to see some new documentation 'real soon now'. I, for one,
can't wait.
- Olof