Re: [ANN] New comprehensive AppleScript book
Re: [ANN] New comprehensive AppleScript book
- Subject: Re: [ANN] New comprehensive AppleScript book
- From: Hanaan Rosenthal <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 16:59:15 -0500
Hello All,
Thank you for looking through and discussing my book!
Here are my 2 cents:
The idea I had when starting, and which kept me going through the writing process, was to create a book that looks at AppleScript from the scripter's perspective. That meant a few things:
First, I organized the book based on function, I didn't simply take the original language guide and expand on it. The book is organized by subject such as "Working with text" or "Working with files". The user doesn't want to look for file issues in five different chapters.
It also meant that I try to exhaust every subject to the best of my ability. When reading computer books, I sometimes find myself reading a good story, but with no conclusion. I wanted to get as much depth, as many scenarios and as much advice as possible, to truly help someone who was trying to achieve a task in AppleScript. I imagined a really demanding scripter sitting in front of me and keeping on asking questions, driving me nuts at times, but I had to answer every question and plug all the holes.
I also wanted to include advanced topics, which I did, such as script objects, creating RTF files, creating PDFs with SMILE, automating databases, and more. This is not only the beginner tutorial Paul suggests it is.
I believe that no matter what subject you are involved in, your knowledge of the subject should be broader than what you actually need to know in order to get your work done. For instance, if you are a gardener, you would be a better gardener if you knew a bit about biology even if all you do is water the plants. This is true in AppleScript, but it also has a limit. If I tried to get as deep and technical into the language as Matt did with his book, I would have lost a lot of the connection with the reader that I wanted to have, and ended up with an even heavier book :-).
Don't get me wrong, I own the book Matt wrote and to which Paul Berkowitz did the technical reviewing, and I think it is phenomenal, I would (and have) personally recommend it to anyone.
Most importantly, the question "if you could have only one book" doesn't really apply here, since you don't: I think that no AppleScripter's bookshelf is complete without BOTH these books.
Hanaan
On Nov 17, 2004, at 2:49 PM, Paul Berkowitz wrote:
On 11/17/04 11:38 AM, "Rick Gordon" <email@hidden> wrote:
S what book would you suggest for "high-concept" theory? As a person with some
moderate background in Classic AppleScript and wanting to update my references
to current standards and approaches, I'm considering buying Hanaan's book,
along with "Absolute AppleScript Studio
"<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1593270372/ref=pd_bxgy_text_1/
102-8327400-7177760?v=glance&s=books&st=*>.
What else might I consider, and what would cover the "high-concept" theory
aspect?
What's a "high-concept" theory?
I just got Hanaan's book myself: it looks like a thorough tutorial,
well-written to get beginners fully up to speed, from start to finish.
For an outstanding book that deals in depth with the syntax of the
AppleScript language (maybe that's what you mean?), particularly if you have
any background in AppleScript and/or other programming languages, get
AppleScript: The Definitive Guide by Matt Neuburg (published by O'Reilly).
It's a wonderful book.
--
Paul Berkowitz
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be successful... ...work less.
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