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: vectormation <email@hidden>
- Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2001 22:45:57 -0400
AppleScript may be a lot of things, but harder to learn than C++ it
ain't. True, someone who can program C++, or Java, or even JavaScript
will be frustrated with AppleScript until they get the hang of it. It is
emphatically not true that "Joe Mac user" will even try to use C++ after
looking at some source... AppleScript's verbose style makes it SEEM more
accessible to non-programmers, and I think that's the whole point.
~Phi
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Allow me to attempt to answer with a quote from another thread:
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At 18:23 -0600 9/23/01, Rachel Cogent wrote:
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>I am attempting to make a list of all the files in a folder and subfolders,
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>however the "entire contents of" returns an empty list. I have looked all
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>over the Finder dictionary how to do this. does it say this stuff anywhere
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>in plain language? Is this how it is, every little step of the way is a huge
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>obstacle? Please tell me there is a way to learn this stuff without posting
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>a question and waiting for every little modification.
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My personal biggest reason for not using AppleScript is the very
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simple lack of documentation. It is a pain in the proverbial donkey's
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butt to figure out just how to express yourself. "Natural English" is
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a joke. Raw C or C++ is easier to understand. Guessing what phrase
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will be understood is difficult and AppleScript is simply not
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capable, in a human sense, of second guessing what I have in mind
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when I speak the English I learned in 1940.
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In MPW this user's question is simple - two lines:
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directory diskname:directory:
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files
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or
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files -l # if you want to know a lot of details
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or
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files -r # if you want to delve into subdirectories
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and MPW is now free from Apple at:
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ftp://ftp.apple.com/developer/Tool_Chest/Core_Mac_OS_Tools/MPW_etc./MPW-GM
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_Images/
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MacPerl, and now real perl in OS neXt, are better. The MPW scripting
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language, though different from absolutely everyone else's, is at
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least documented.
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It is possible to create and then send interapplication communication
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events in C, MacPerl, perl, or MPW, but it's impossible to discover
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the appropriate codes from the "dictionary" of an application. It's
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equally impossible to guess just what verbiage will persuade
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AppleScript to execute without generating some obscure error.
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Object-oriented methods and classes may make sense somewhere but if
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you want a scripting language easily usable by people who just want
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to get things done they're simply not the right answer.
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--
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--> Life begins at ovulation. Ladies should endeavor to get every
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young life fertilized. <--
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