Re: Input for Upcoming Book
Re: Input for Upcoming Book
- Subject: Re: Input for Upcoming Book
- From: Charles Arthur <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 17 Jan 2003 12:09:03 +0000
On Fri, 17 Jan 2003 09:10:38 +1100, Steven Angier <email@hidden> wrote:
>
> My question is, is there interest in structured tutorials on creating
>
> applications for Mac OS 9 with Dialog Director and FaceSpan?
>
>
Neither of these are very relevant moving forward.
Echoed - when the next PowerMacs come out, once QXP6 for X is out, then all
the hardware going forward will only boot into X; and writing Ascripts for
Classic is a pain. I think any effort writing about scripting for OS9 won't
mean many reprints in the future.
>
Sounds like your target audience will be the advanced-to-expert scripter? If
>
so, then step-by-step instructions of building "Hello, world!"-level
>
applications won't really cut it, and if you are using AppleScript Studio,
>
then you might find it difficult to build anything much bigger.
I have to *really* disagree on that. Here's my input: AStudio is *very*
powerful - arguably moreso than Applescript on its own. First of all, you
can prototype apps very quickly with it. But more than that, you get access
to not only the terminal shell, but also to Cocoa methods - so that you can
create real preference files (of the com.X.x.plist form) which you can read
and write, for example. And you can do anything, through calling Cocoa
methods, that you could with raw Cocoa, but through the rather easier
medium of Applescript. You can create FBAs, or fully-fledged apps. And you
can design apps with Apple-quality UIs (if you're that good at designing
interfaces). iPhoto 1 was built with AStudio, I believe.
Certainly what I would look for in a book would be something that really
explains handlers, and especially the timing and threading of handlers in
scripts. AStudio can be very confusing, for example, because it's hard to
know what handler will get called at what point with what values if you
click on an interface object while, say, an idle handler is running.
AStudio is all about multiple handlers, some of which can be running
concurrently, which I think puts writing for it into a different class from
straightforward standalone Applescripts.
At a basic level, someone needs really to revisit Bill Briggs's excellent
series that he wrote about Applescript (which I think is still there at
MacCentral) and see to what extent that still applies on X, and what is
changed.
I think too that this book is going to be a huge project, and its audience
very hard to define. But it should definitely include AStudio - if it's
good enough for NASA scientists modelling jet engine noise
(
http://www.apple.com/hotnews/articles/2002/10/craighunter/) I think it's
worth a look.
Charles
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