Re: obligatory snipe [was Re: how can script bundles store extra stuff?]
Re: obligatory snipe [was Re: how can script bundles store extra stuff?]
- Subject: Re: obligatory snipe [was Re: how can script bundles store extra stuff?]
- From: DigitEL <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 20:18:59 -0700
Various scriptlist posters wrote>
Although I have been at AS for some 7 years now I do consider myself
one of the naive, light-weight newbie end-user types and have
followed this thread with some interest.
AppleScript's one big newbie advantage is that it's tremendously
easy to read: even folk who've no knowledge of programming can look
at AppleScript source and grok its general meaning. Battle-hardened
geeks, who can't understand why _anyone_ would want to use
AppleScript, totally underestimate how crucial an advantage this is
for a certain class of user. For actually writing code, however,
AppleScript is way below par: other languages, despite their less
charming looks, actually work out much better in terms of clarity,
coherence and unambiguousness.
Here, here! I have the greatest respect, awe, and admiration for what
'real' programmers have accomplished and offered up to the rest of us
but I have no real interest in 'programming' as such... its a means
to an end, and when the day comes that I can simply say, StarTrek
style, 'Computer... Do this for me...', I will be even more delighted.
True. But the main reason we newbies like using AppleScript is as
much to do with the workflow as the language itself. Find some
existing code on the net or in an email, launch Script Editor,
paste it in, hit Run - it compiles, formats, and runs it, with
feedback as to how each line worked. If it works, save it
somewhere, and that's it. No need to worry about formatting and
indenting, saving as a file first with the right suffix, including
or importing libraries, setting paths and environments, declaring
variables at different levels of some invisible hierarchy - all the
programmer-type things which programmers seem to like (and value)
but scripters don't. [1]
I like this workflow. I know that life is not always this simple,
and that there's a price to be paid. I'd be happy to write scripts
in anything else (although I like AppleScript's punctuation-light
approach), but everything else I've seen is harder to use at this
basic level.
Integration with the OS means better accessiblilty and flexibility
and less messing around
For folk who really need to get something done and have little
inclination to sit down and learn a language first, AppleScript's
offer of "do now, learn later" is exactly the entry point they're
looking for. (It'll come back and bite them later, of course, but
by that time they're so damn elated they'll hardly even notice
their leg chewed off.:)
Way back when there was some statement like, Applescript bridges the
gap between application capabilities and end-user customization
offering increased productivity and automation of repetitive tasks
beyond the what could be reasonably expected from a proprietary
application. I saw the potential benefit of this and decided learning
'something' about a computer language would be an asset, and that has
been so but the lack of a more formal foundation in programming or
scripting has not, yet, left me feeling my leg being chewed at.
Mine is that AppleScript extensive users feel more rewarded than
bitten.
Of course; that's what I said. Users finally feel like they're
truly in charge of their computers. It's a great feeling, and
usually more than compensates for the odd bit of minor blood loss.
Besides, selective memory is a handy thing. :)
Since Panther I have found Applescript increasingly difficult to use
and more 'programmerish' in feel. All the various things that have
been broken and then fixed from version to version have made writing
time-inputs grow exponentially rather than decrease. Developing the
SystemEvents separation from the Finder, although a very useful
addition to the architecture, has made AS less intuitive. I have a
few people I have coached in AS over the years with even less
interest than I but from time to time have called me up for an
evening of pizza and a few beer to see what could be done in a
specific task. I have actually seen the light of interest go out in
their eyes when I mention the gui-less concept of SystemEvents and
how they need to take that into account. As well, most of the scripts
I have worked on over the last 7 years don't work as of Panther and I
just don't have time nor interest to go back and re-invent the wheel
especially when I thought the whole idea of scripting was to save time.
ApplescriptStudio is O.K. but I wonder why anybody wanting to create
a 'real' application wouldn't opt to move onto Cocoa which has a lot
more environmental controls and whatnot to make a real go of it?
AppleScript seems to be moving beyond the reach of people like me.
Automator is interesting and maybe just right for the newbie of
newbies but is too slow and awkward now that I can write code with a
modicum of speed. I don't know but if people like me are considered
important in the computing mix, even for the reason for what we help
promote the idea of benefits of computing and can demonstrate to
others that even 'we/they' can do it, i.e. as market toolers, there
needs to be scripting language that fits that kind of user.
--
ForNow
EL
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