Re: What makes AppleScript COOL!
Re: What makes AppleScript COOL!
- Subject: Re: What makes AppleScript COOL!
- From: "Mark J. Reed" <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2007 23:02:07 -0500
Using Apple-supplied, even shipped-with-the-Mac software, is no
insurance against breakage on upgrade - witness X11 on Leopard. I'd
say that's a flimsy excuse for not using third-party components.
And Script Debugger may be cheap compared to those third party apps
you're scripting with it, but some of us are using AS at home on our
own Macs and not getting paid for it. Spending several hundred
dollars on SD is hard to justify in those circumstances. Especially
when lots of other programming languages offer a similar level of
capability absolutely free.
On 12/7/07, Stockly, Ed <email@hidden> wrote:
> >>>>>1) Script recording. This would help both Apple and scripters: Apple
> wouldn't be blamed for every developer's (sometimes poor) choices in how
> they
> expose their app, and scripters would have a much easier time dealing with
> these implementation decisions since it wouldn't take so much trial and
> error
> to figure out how to get something done.
>
> I used recording a lot in OS 9 if I was struggling to figure out how to
> issue a particular command.
>
> It's nearly gone in OSX and I don't miss it.
>
> What I do miss is Scripter's Command Builder, which would allow you to build
> working commands by pointing and clicking at command components pulled from
> the application's dictionary.
>
> It also provided a better way of looking at dictionaries.
>
>
> >>>>2) Debugging. Why is it still necessary to buy a (relatively)
> expensive 3rd party application in order to debug Applescript code?
>
> Get over it. Script Debugger is relatively cheap. I script Quark, InDesign,
> PhotoShop, just to name a few, on scripts that are run on hundreds of macs.
> To keep them all going all I really need is a single copy of Script Debugger
> (Although I think we bought 4 copies). Compared to the money we spend on all
> our installations with those apps, the cost of SD is a drop in the bucket.
>
> If you're serious about AppleScripting you should use the best tools
> available to write and debug your scripts. (Deployment is a different
> matter, see below).
>
>
> >>>>3) Provide example scripts and real language/dictionary documentation
> for the code that *is* controlled by Apple Guide from 1999!?)
>
> Agreed.
>
> Just one other point about third party software vs. Apple software.
>
> Without naming names, suppose all my scripts depended on a third party osax
> or FBA for basic every day operation. Text handling, for example, or parsing
> XML data, or copying and deleting files. I can imagine myself explaining to
> my boss or some other department head that the reason the script won't work
> on these new macs is that some software I downloaded for free from the
> internet isn't compatible with his new processor or the new system and won't
> be until the guy who writes it and releases it has bought an Intel mac and
> upgraded to the latest system and has the time to work on it.
>
> There's plenty third party developers do that's good and useful,and I buy
> their products and my company buys them too, but there are some eggs I'd
> rather keep in my own basket or Apple's.
>
> ES
>
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--
Mark J. Reed <email@hidden>
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