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: "Roger Howard" <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2001 15:00:12 -0700
As someone with a programming background it is of course difficult to gauge with regards to my own experiences with AS, however I do love it and find it to be infinitely useful and highly agreeable for the most part. I am extremely comfortable with it, and for me - whether large systems or small off the cuff scripts - it is everythign it was meant to be and more.
As far as non-programmers, I have personally trained a handful of people without ANY programming background (including a few intimidated by anything they considered "code", including HTML) and find that with an absolute minimum of instruction in basic concepts they are off and running on their own. Then, every few months it takes a little prodding and exposing new concepts and they bite and take off in a new direction. But from the very beginning these VERY average computer users with no experience or desire to program have produced scripts that are extremely valuable and functional for their work. This to me is the REAL success, as I feel I can tackle most any tool myself but when I can get a self-avowed non-geek to latch on to AppleScript in about 30 minutes of playing it's truly inspiring!
Now if only they'd start teaching basic comp sci at the primary education level in the US most people wouldn't even distinguish between coding and not, it would just be what it is to us - using our computers.
The biggest barrier is effective evangelism, developer support (for AS developers as well as AS implementation support for app developers), incentives for app vendors to offer solid scripting docs and promotion, and most of all CONSISTENT and usable (and EXISTANT) scripting support from APPLE of all companies! For Apple to not bother implementing scripting in EVERY app they produce is shameful, absolutely, and embarassing as an AppleScript promoter who has no answer when people ask why even Apple doesn't bother. Ugh. How about positions AS also as an excellent rapid development tool for Web programming - extend ACGIs to be real contenders on OSX, enabling very powerful Web applications with a combination of simple scripting and native osaxen.
How about words of encouragement, feedback solicitations, and generous embracing of third-party solutions - there are osax, for instance, that would make tremendous strategic investments for Apple, if they played it right, instead of just adding to the plain vanilla tools (which are great, but why arent certain technologies like Quicktime and Colorsync, hallmarks of the Mac OS, more accessible to Apples own scripting language?).
My two or three cents.
Roger Howard
Digital Media Specialist
The J. Paul Getty Museum
email@hidden
310.440.6908
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My own belief? It's a PITA. Bugginess in the scripting implementation
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of many apps, including a lot of Apple system components. Lack of good
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documentation. Applescript is no way, no how, what it tried to be,
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which was completely intuitive. IMO, if you don't have the fundamental
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abilities of a decent programmer, it is not realistic to write useful
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Applescripts, even though it is much easier to do and learn than scratch
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development in a standard language.