Re: settle! was Re: Scripting Mail:get selection
Re: settle! was Re: Scripting Mail:get selection
- Subject: Re: settle! was Re: Scripting Mail:get selection
- From: Andy Satori <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 25 Feb 2003 13:06:05 -0500
VB(A) isn't the answer, and MS is worse about promoting it's scripting
technologies than Apple, the script based virii like Melissa and Klez
have done more to promote the power of VBScript than anything Microsoft
has done. VB, VBA, WordBasic, VBScript (in it's various windows
scripting incarnations, with all of it's subtle differences) are 4 very
different languages. Each applied in it's own way, and Access uses yet
another dialect that is more or less VBA, but yet it's not.
Bear in mind, I'm not a NeXTie, I'm a Windows developer that bought a
Mac a little over a year ago specifically for OS X. I owned a Umax a
few years back, running OS 7.6 - 8.5. AppleScript is much more
pervasive, and better documented than anything Windows Scripting Host
related. And really if you want to compare the same topics, compare
the WSH to OSA. Both are engines that support multiple scripting
languages, AppleScript is the default on a Mac, but JavaScript is
available. On Windows VBScript, and JavaScript are there by default,
but like OSA you can add other languages.
Both environments rely on the 3rd party developers to provide
interfaces to make them scriptable. On Windows, that means exposing an
IDispInterface or IDispatch COM interface, and all that that entails.
On OS X, you have to build a dictionary. On both platforms, it's
usually an afterthought, unless one of the core developers is an avid
scripter. Even then it's often impossible to fully leverage the
application without this being done at design time.
Microsoft's own applications in Office are scriptable, but have major
holes in the scripting interfaces. Windows Media Player, don't bother,
it's scriptable, but only partially works. Movie Maker? Outlook
Express? Address Book? Notepad? nope.
I've found that the developer's, particularly the newer Cocoa based
application developers are working harder at leveraging AppleScript
than the Windows market in general. I find that while there may be
flaws in the dictionaries, the overall support for the scripters is
better on the Mac than on Windows, and I probably push Windows
scripting to the ragged edge of it's abilities, being as when I've had
to, I've written both sides, the scripts and the COM interfaces. I
literally run Outlook almost completely by JavaScript, I use a small
personal todo / defect management system that is written entirely in
javascript wrapped around Outlook.
These days, I've moved almost all of my personal life to my PowerBook,
and I'm slowly building the same functionality in AppleScript, but
instead of it all wrapping around Outlook, it's all built on the Apple
tools. So far, I haven't found much that can't be done in AS on the
OSA model that could be done in VB / JS in the WSH model.
In otherwords, both platforms have strong foundations for scripters,
both companies are hesitant at showing off what it can do. Based on
the experiences of Melissa and others, I'm not sure I blame them.
Andy
On Tuesday, February 25, 2003, at 11:04 AM, John C. Welch wrote:
If you want to see how a scripting language should be supported, look
at MS
and VB(A).
john
_______________________________________________
applescript-users mailing list | email@hidden
Help/Unsubscribe/Archives:
http://www.lists.apple.com/mailman/listinfo/applescript-users
Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.