re. lotteries, alternatives, new dawns, etc. (was Re: Finding Filenames that contain a certain string)
re. lotteries, alternatives, new dawns, etc. (was Re: Finding Filenames that contain a certain string)
- Subject: re. lotteries, alternatives, new dawns, etc. (was Re: Finding Filenames that contain a certain string)
- From: has <email@hidden>
- Date: Sat, 21 Jul 2007 18:46:20 +0100
Shane Stanley wrote:
I think you're suggesting cause where it doesn't exist. Shell
scripting has
got us off the hook. Relying on Apple to make things scriptable has
always
been a lottery, usually with very bad odds. Have a look around,
starting
with the Finder and working down/up. Now, at least, we often have an
alternative.
I'd agree that waiting for Apple to provide enhancements to the
AppleScript language is an exercise in futility, and if
AppleScripters want to see any improvements here they need to roll up
their sleeves and do it themselves, or pay others to do it for them.
Obviously there's no way for users to improve the core language,
given that it's closed-source, but there's plenty that could be done
on the library/osax/scriptable FBA front. e.g. I wrote a bunch of
libraries for AppleMods that could do with some regular love and
attention from the AS community. I've also provided an easy-to-use
framework for others to develop scriptable FBAs in Python, a language
that is not hard to learn and has scads of valuable libraries that
could be wrapped for calling from AppleScript; e.g. see TextCommands
on osaxen.com, which provides an indispensable collection of text
manipulation commands that every AppleScript user should have.
Personally I think the AS community needs to shoulder at least some
of the blame here for failing to establish a culture of formal code
reuse amongst its members. Look at any popular language like Perl,
Python or Ruby and they all have large, freely available collections
of solid, general purpose libraries, allowing newcomers to build on
top of the established work of more experienced developers. Whereas
the AppleScript community seems to take a pride in constantly
reinventing even the most basic of wheels time and time and time
again. Good for the personal ego, perhaps, but no way to build up any
kind of permanent infrastructure that'll lift a platform above its
initial basement level.
I think we're all long past having any delusions that AppleScript
is, or
will ever be, anything other than a minor bit-player in the Apple
scheme of
things. People will continue to get excited when another Apple app
gets a
handful of badly written commands added, but the reality is that
we're like
beggars who are largely unseen. Hoping otherwise is just ignoring
20-odd
years of history. There is no new dawn up ahead.
This is not entirely true. I agree that the AppleScript language is,
and will likely continue to be, a backwater in the OS X world;
however, AppleScript != application scripting. Apple have already
said that Leopard will include Cocoa-Apple event bindings that will
be accessible from ObjC, Python and Ruby, so it's clear there is some
sort of commitment at Apple to promoting and expanding application
scripting in general.
Assuming this development manages to entice significant numbers of
users to application scripting [1], this will also benefit
AppleScript users as more application scripters = more motivation for
application developers (including Apple themselves) to provide better
scripting support in their applications.
If shell scripting lets us do things that are otherwise difficult or
impossible, terrific. Naturally, those more familiar with it will lean
towards it more often than others, just as some of us write memos in
InDesign rather than TextEdit. That's just natural. On a list where
as often
as not multiple solutions are posted, it all tends to balance out.
The bottom line is that many scripters are able to do things they
otherwise
couldn't because of shell scripting, and yet still integrate it into
AppleScript. To me, that's more cause for celebration than grumbling.
I would recommend to anyone who uses AppleScript as their sole
language on a regular basis as their sole language that they learn a
second language (I'd recommend Python, but Ruby or even bash would
do) just as soon as you can get over your initial syntaxophobia. It
will open your eyes to the limitations of AppleScript and expose you
to all kinds of new knowledge and tools that you probably didn't even
know existed before. Even if you do continue working largely or
wholly in AppleScript, that learning experience will help to make you
a better AppleScripter.
It's like the difference between a farmer who spends all day carrying
buckets of water up a hill, and a farmer who takes the time to sit
down and learn about the Archimedes screw. Until you're *at least
aware* of the alternatives that exist, you've no way of telling just
how much unnecessary work and pain you're creating for yourself.
Cheers,
has
[1] Personally I suspect Apple missed their best chance for success
here by not going with appscript, but we'll need to wait till Leopard
ships to see how good Scripting Bridge actually is and if it can
manage to find any significant traction.
--
http://appscript.sourceforge.net
http://rb-appscript.rubyforge.org
http://appscript.sourceforge.net/objc-appscript.html
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