Re: Determining item number matching "x" in a list
Re: Determining item number matching "x" in a list
- Subject: Re: Determining item number matching "x" in a list
- From: Mr Tea <email@hidden>
- Date: Sun, 16 Mar 2003 16:31:00 +0000
This from Nigel Garvey - dated 16-03-03 12729am:
>
Since I haven't seen any objections to the use of Perl on this list, I
>
conclude that both approaches are generally welcome.
I don't know if this counts as an objection, but I become nauseous and
disorientated at the sight of it.
In some ways, offering up a gobbet of Perl or similar as a solution to a
scripting problem is no different to suggesting an impenetrably terse and
optimised script to a newbie who hasn't got beyond the 'select file "x" of
folder "y" of folder "z" stage. It gets the job done, but no-one actually
learns anything. But then, even the most opaque 'real' applescript can be
deconstructed and rewritten in a functional form that most scripters will
understand. Not so Perl.
When shell script examples started to proliferate on this list about a year
ago, I felt as if I'd fallen off the AppleScript ladder and was starting
again at the bottom rung. That turns out to have been an over-reaction,
because since then I've found only 2 really compelling reasons to include
shell script calls in my own AppleScripts: formatting date information, and
logging out. Perhaps my needs are uncomplicated.
Clearly, AppleScript can't do everything, and sometimes it requires a vast,
complex Heath Robinson/Rube Goldberg contraption just to bang in a nail,
where a shell script provides a simple hammer instead.
Perl and its kin have a place in the scripter's toolbox, now that 'do shell
script' is available, but if we get to the stage where simple scripting
enquiries are habitually met with a 'why bother with that when you can do
this' and a bunch of punctuation that passes for code, then the list will
have sadly lost its way. Fortunately, we're not there yet.
Cordially
Nick
--
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