Re: Sorting? [sorted]
Re: Sorting? [sorted]
- Subject: Re: Sorting? [sorted]
- From: has <email@hidden>
- Date: Sat, 14 Sep 2002 14:27:08 +0100
John Delacour wrote:
>
>JD's a smart guy and all, but I didn't think a solution that's
>
>harder to understand than the alternatives was entirely to the OP's
>
>benefit. [3]
>
>
>
Well here's the same routine with self-explanatory variables
Sorry, this obviously caused confusion. To clarify: I was referring to your
AS script, not your Perl one.
>
To dismiss the immeasurable superiority of perl over AppleScript for
>
any work involved with text and files (not to speak of most other
>
things) is rather like belonging to the Flat Earth Society and now
>
that Apple have finally given us an operating system to shout about
>
which has perl at it's heart, it seems odd not to take advantage of
>
it.
Actually, it's not strange at all: many folks simply don't know any Perl.
And, love it or hate it, you have to admit that its peculiar syntax is
going to make it look pretty intimidating to many folk without a
programming background [i.e. most AppleScript users].
Faced with a choice between learning a new language and trying to get by
using the one they do know, it's easy for folk to go with the latter
option. Maybe that's not a good long-term strategy, but you can't really
blame 'em: most have much more important and pressing work to be getting on
with, and programming is far from central to their world. That Perl is ten
or a hundred times better at text processing is simply... irrelevant, to a
great number of people.
--
BTW, JD, I did manage to grok your original Perl code, and to me it
demonstrates _exactly_ what's _wrong_ with AppleScript, and what's right
about Perl, Python, etc. While us lot spend half our lives knocking up
basic algorithms from scratch each time we need them, those other languages
ship with a huge collection of built-in libraries that make it possible to
perform even fairly complex tasks by doing little more than plugging a
handful of generic, ready-made components together and clicking the GO
button. Now _that's_ powerful [1]. Those Perl/Python heads must spend their
lives chuckling behind their hands at us ASers. Sheesh.
I'm going to save the rest of this rant for later: I'm far from finished
yet, but I have other things to do.
Regards,
has
[1] Yes, I know AS has terrific interapplication control, but that's about
ALL its got. AS is a toolbox where every tool in it is a hammer.
--
http://www.barple.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk -- The Little Page of AppleScripts
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