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: Paul Berkowitz <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2001 17:41:59 -0700
This is a very good post, Ken. Well said.
--
Paul Berkowitz
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From: email@hidden
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Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2001 19:44:12 EDT
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To: email@hidden, email@hidden
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Subject: RE: What's the biggest barrier to wider AS adoption?
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> What I'm wondering is, AppleScript is really cool, and it seems like
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> it's not nearly as widely used as it could be. Why do you think that
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> is?
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Well, here's my 2 cents:
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("People" is being defined as the general user--the vast majority of Mac
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users. That is, not "too" savvy at the abstract, but somewhat competent with
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the apps that are used day to day. Probably understands how to use the
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Finder's 'folders'. Probabaly only uses the menus instead of key shortcuts.
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In other words, not a power user. Just a user.)
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People just don't want to write scripts and most couldn't if they had to.
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I've created many scripts for the various places that I have worked. Compared
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to most of the stuff we see here on the list, my scripts are not terribly
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complicated. For example, my latest simply asks the user a few questions so
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it can construct an appropriate search string, then searches a text file for
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that string and displays the resulting look-up value. Simple.
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Yet the people I work with are amazed at the magic I've created. They
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wouldn't know where to start if they were forced to try and write that on
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their own. If they did try they wouldn't have the patience to follow-through.
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If they got that far, well, they wouldn't. They'd never even crack open the
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first PDF doc. Way over their heads, simple as it may be. But...
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They love to use the tools that I've built for them and are constantly
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suggesting new ones for me to write, completely oblivious to whether it's a
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difficult or easy suggestion (fair enough). So people do like to use the
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RESULTS that AS can offer, but have no interest in generating their own tools.
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> From their perspective, an AppleScript is just more software. They don't even
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understand the distinction between programming and scripting. In fact, most
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people I've encountered who use Macs (I'm in graphics/prepress, so I've met a
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lot of supposed sophisticated Mac users) have 'heard' of AppleScript, but
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don't know what it is.
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When you get right down to it, scripting on any significant level is (at
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least) somewhat complicated and you can only dumb it down just so much before
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it loses functionality. For example, recordability of an app is great and can
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allow a total non-scripter to rearrange items on his desktop with AS. But it
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will never generate an if-then loop for you. How far can you really go with
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that?
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At the risk of babbling all night, I'll just stop here!
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Ken Fleisher
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email@hidden
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