Re: [OT] AppleScript scripts versus Shell scripts
Re: [OT] AppleScript scripts versus Shell scripts
- Subject: Re: [OT] AppleScript scripts versus Shell scripts
- From: Bernard Knight <email@hidden>
- Date: Sat, 18 Jan 2003 01:45:33 +0000
Oh I do so agree with that - a 'rant' well worth doing.
Bernard
On 16/1/03 6:38 pm, "Michael Sullivan" <email@hidden> wrote:
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> I'd like to know what is the observed difference in speed when using
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> an AppleScript script and the same in Shell language?
>
>
I'll answer this from the perspective of using Perl rather than shell
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scripting.
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>
The difference is that I can get things done in Perl in record time,
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whereas Applescript (I'm a newbie) takes me forever.
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>
Why?
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>
Because on my desk right now are several Perl books which answer almost
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all questions I might have. Also on my desk is the "AppleScript
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Language Guide For AppleScript 1.3.7" dated nearly three years ago that
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answers very few of my questions. If I look up AppleScript books at
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Amazon.com, they all have been poorly reviewed (yes, I know there is
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supposed to be a great one coming out but that's not until April).
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One of the best resources is a series of columns started in 1999 that
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are informative but are old (OS X, anyone?) and aren't easy to
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reference.
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Whenever a new Mac OS release comes out, I see articles along the lines
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of "AppleScript: A Mac's Best Kept Secret" urging people to give
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AppleScript a try. You know why it's a well-kept secret? Because it
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is so hard to get started! Where is the "Learning Perl" equivalent for
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AppleScript? Where is "Programming Perl" for AppleScript, for that
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matter?
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Want a recent example of this? Go to the GUI Scripting page:
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>
http://www.apple.com/applescript/GUI/
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Here is the total documentation for this great, new (beta) thing:
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"The following script examples demonstrate a few possible uses of GUI
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scripting:"
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Followed by 13 examples. Does the AppleScript team have a religious
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aversion to user documentation (what's with all those "delay 1"s)?
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I would love to do more with AppleScript but it is SO HARD to get
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my arms around this thing in an efficient manner; my time is finite.
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I don't want to scan the net picking up tidbits here and there. I
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don't want to post every little question I have to the board or this
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list. I want to sit down with a book/manual or a PDF and read. I want
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to go to the index, look up the "mount" command, and learn about it
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(heck, I didn't even know about "Standard Additions" until last
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night--why
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did I have to stumble across that instead of learning about it in the
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manual?). Maybe I'll figure out why it's having problems passing
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username
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and password when mounting an smb volume (the dictionary is rather, um,
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terse). The example scripts are nice but they're giving me fish instead
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of teaching me how to fish.
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>
Thank you for your time. Sorry for the rant but I feel a little better.
--
Bernard Knight
email@hidden
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