Re: URL Access redux
Re: URL Access redux
- Subject: Re: URL Access redux
- From: "Gary (Lists)" <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 19 May 2006 15:22:42 -0400
"Stockly, Ed" wrote:
>
>> Can anyone tell me what the "extension failure" message I get from
>> those scripts (upload and download, posted earlier) means when using
>> URL Access?
>> --
>
>>>> Can't we dissuade you from this exercise? Why don't you ask us a question
>>>> about cURL?
>
> Isn't this supposed to be the place to get answers for AppleScript questions?
I thought this was the Spring Break "Scripters Gone Wild" chat room.
I'm really in the wrong place.
> cURL is not appleScript.
Well...yes and no.
> URL Access is.
Yeah, but it has never worked well, and it's a legacy tool for maintaining
BC with OS 9.
> cURL is a shell script solution
Which the AppleScript team has elegantly bridged to AppleScript via the tiny
little command "do shell script".
Learning curl is not hard. As AppleScriptable tools go, it is one of the
easiest "shell" tools to learn. I am no Unix geek, I assure you, and I
often look at a 'man' page and go all bleary-eyed. In this case (curl), you
will find not only an easy and straight-forward 'man' page, but also,
because of curl's age and its central place in a connected world, you will
find a great number of resources related to its feature set.
>From barely remembering some basic Unix commands from my days as a Hokie
(punch cards, thank you), I was able to write "CURL-Up and Listen" in just
under 4 hours. This tool retrieves and reads text from anywhere on the web,
but most especially from Project Gutenberg, using 'curl'.
How much time has the OP spent struggling with URLA, when that tool is
deprecated, for all intents and purposes? What's the use in that?
I do understand what you're saying, Ed, about "pure AS" and such, but 'do
shell script' is pure AS. Even putting that admittedly 'thin' argument
aside, I just reiterate the time issue and the centrality of
"upload/download" in today's working world.
Moving files across the net is a significant part of workflow, and doing
that reliably, and flexibly, is key. URLA might be able to do the basics
(put a file, get a file), but beyond that it's pretty useless.
On the other hand, with investing a little bit of time (say, 2 hours) of
learning something about 'curl' (and ignoring every other Unix shell tool
there every was), you can very nearly master doing things like:
faceless web sessions with cookies,
faceless web sessions with form data,
faceless FTP sessions, with security or without,
bulk downloading of files based on "wildcard expressions",
...and so on.
Some of this stuff is just not possible with URLA.
So, maybe one's needs are just "upload and download" without a dedicated
application. Well, then that is the easiest stuff to do with 'curl' and one
can learn that in about 15 minutes, using only AppleScript and 'curl'.
In the end, the argument about "pure AS" versus some mix of AS and basic
shell tools just goes out the window. It's about human resources and the
tick-tock of the clock.
Your point of argument may prevail in other cases, but with 'curl' v. URLA,
it's a non-starter.
"URLA is dead."
--
Gary Nietzsche
...a Classic from the email sig archive...
"9 is Fine"
...which was especially created for the amusement of one Mr. P. Berkowitz.
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