Re: Seeking "non-programmer's" AppleScript reference
Re: Seeking "non-programmer's" AppleScript reference
- Subject: Re: Seeking "non-programmer's" AppleScript reference
- From: Jeff Porten <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2004 17:06:29 -0400
On Oct 19, 2004, at 7:50 PM, Tom Humiston wrote:
Mind you, I pick up on computer stuff pretty well, and my favorite way
of learning a program is to start with a compact manual that gives me
a straightforward walk-through and includes the overall concepts,
rather than ponderous tutorials and "for dummies" books.
I haven't read an AppleScript book since the mid-90s and I understand
that the one I have is out of print. Will recommend Neuberg's book
because he writes so well for TidBITs.
Here's a method I recommend; in fact, I repeat these methods starting
at step N every time I work with a new scriptable application or
concept, and I've been doing this for 10 years:
1) read the AppleScript Language Guide. You're not trying absorb it;
what you're trying to do is stock your mental pantry shelf with the
concepts AS provides you. That way, when you have a problem to solve,
you'll know that you should go to a subroutine or a list of lists, or
what have you.
2) pick a few personal projects that matter to you. You want something
that, once solved, will be a daily assistance. That way you get the
pride of problem solving, and the daily reinforcement of building
useful tools.
2a) focus on those projects which all take place in a single
application; i.e., the Finder. Multi-application scripting is silly
useful, but also exponentially more complicated.
3) Get in the habit of reading scripting dictionaries. Each app has
one, and each one should be treated as an appendix to the ASLG. Start
with "Standard Additions", because you'll be in there on a regular
basis. Again, you're not trying to learn it all, you're just stocking
the pantry.
4) Avoid 3rd-party OSAXen (plug-ins to extend AppleScript's abilities)
if you can. Caveat: there are many things that are simply impossible
without them, and other things that are 10 times harder. But the
reason you stick with vanilla AppleScript as far as you can is to learn
its limits.
5) Start writing scripts. Don't forget about using the result window
and the event log to show you where things are. Display dialog and say
commands are your new best friends for debugging. My scripts are
riddled with code such as this:
set debug to true
[...]
if debug is true then say "Variable1 is " & var1 & ", variable2 is " &
var2 & "."
Then when I'm done with the script i just change the debug declaration
to "false".
Good luck,
Jeff
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