Re: Search a file question - Mac OS 9
Re: Search a file question - Mac OS 9
- Subject: Re: Search a file question - Mac OS 9
- From: "Arthur J. Knapp" <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2002 10:36:24 -0400
>
Date: Tue, 17 Sep 2002 11:33:28 -1000
>
Subject: Re: Search a file question - Mac OS 9
>
From: Reinhold Penner <email@hidden>
>
> do shell script "use unix/perl/shell commands, you silly person."
>
...and what's wrong with that? I really think that the "do shell
>
script" command has essentially killed most of AppleScript's own
>
commands. I just use AS for script flow inbetween DSC commands.
I am a JavaScripter. If I had my way, all programming and scripting
would be in JavaScript. It is a world of dots and semi-colons that
is natural and intuative to me. However, most AppleScripters are,
well, AppleScripters. This language was designed to be for "the rest
of us", etc. There is no question that Unix, perl, and shell commands
are more powerful, but they are not intuative and easy for most non-
programmers to understand.
AppleScript is not just a *means* of scripting, it is also a *way*
of scripting, an experiment in user-friendly computing, (something
that Apple used to actually care about in it's pre-Unix box days).
The fact that other languages are more powerful should be a wake up
call to the AppleScript development team. Either the AppleScript
experiment should be continued by making vast improvements to the
language, or it should be scraped, so that we can all stop wasting
our time on an interesting language that has no future.
If Apple wants their grand experiment in English-like programming to
continue, they are going to have to vastly improve the *power* of the
language. The initial philosophy was that each application would provide
the *tools* to do what the user wanted, but this has been clearly shown
to not be enough. We need AS to do more on it's own.
I have been using the AppleScript language now for around 6 years.
I have a special fondness for it, and so long as someone is supporting
it, I will continue to make use of it, but my patience has worn thin.
After an intitial test run, I decided that I didn't really care for
OS X, but I'll tell you what: a new *powerful* AppleScript, with native
string, list, and numeric commands comparable to those of other scripting
languages, would be the only incentive I would need to become an OS X
convert.
{ Arthur J. Knapp, of <
http://www.STELLARViSIONs.com>
a r t h u r @ s t e l l a r v i s i o n s . c o m
}
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