Re: Seeking "non-programmer's" AppleScript reference
Re: Seeking "non-programmer's" AppleScript reference
- Subject: Re: Seeking "non-programmer's" AppleScript reference
- From: Mr Tea <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2004 09:27:10 +0100
This from Tom Humiston - dated 20/10/04 12ยท50 am:
> I've been reading this list for a few days to get a sense of things,
> and I come up with two scenarios: Either you all are talking about
> really deep coding stuff because you're experts, or the
> freely-available AppleScript books and tutorials are as impenetrable as
> I think they are and you're talking about all this stuff because it's
> impossible to just get good information to start with. Or maybe both.
Some of us (me) are simple AS hobbyists still struggling towards the light.
My first impressions of this list were much as yours are: in the main, it
seemed totally incomprehensible and irrelevant, and the answers offered to
my tentative early enquiries often left me more confused than I was to begin
with. But now I fully understand a good 20% of what goes on here.
My advice on starting out with learning AppleScript would be to just play
with it a bit. Look at the scripts that come with the OS, and at Apple's AS
pages and downloads. Try simple things like setting the size and position of
Finder windows, creating folders, moving stuff around, or basic operations
with text and numbers. Learn how to locate and read the 'dictionaries' of
commands and terminology that come with applescriptable apps.
Once you start to get a feel for basic scripting structures and procedures,
you'll find that you can adapt them to an ever wider range of tasks.
And don't hesitate to ask simple, elementary questions here. This list is
the best AS resource on the planet (let's not get into a spat with the
MacScripting list), and you will get answers. Lots of them. Some you might
even be able to decipher. In no time at all (or a few months, at least)
you'll find that you're starting to grok the mother and father of all Mac
utilities and a world of almost limitless potential is opening out before
you...
Then maybe pick up a copy of something like 'AppleScript in a Nutshell'.
It's a solid reference guide, and it's never yet let me down when I'm trying
to remember how the heck to do this or that and what syntax to use.
Good luck, and enjoy!
Nick
pp Mr Tea
--
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