AppleScript and shell scripting
AppleScript and shell scripting
- Subject: AppleScript and shell scripting
- From: "Stockly, Ed" <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2007 11:56:36 -0700
- Thread-topic: AppleScript and shell scripting
> (In hindsight, it's a real pity Apple didn't just buy out FaceSpan and update
that, but I guess that's Apple for you: a spot of old-school "not invented here"
and a dab of NeXTie "our way or the highway", combined with dashings and
dashings of the boundless "how hard can it possibly be?" over-optimism that's
common to many programmers and endemic amongst management. But that's just folks
for you.)
Why even bother with FaceSpan (Or AppleScript Studio, for that matter) when
they had a perfectly good, stable and robust RAD of their own in
HyperCard... Oh, nevermind.
Just to clarify a few points before I shut up.
I'm not opposed to shell scripting, I use shell scripting myself on
occasion. I recognize that it's a useful and important tool, I'm glad it's
here and I have nothing but respect for those who use it every day.
But, shell scripting takes up way too much bandwidth on this list, which was
set up in the first place because AppleScripters, and in particular,
AppleScript novices, needed a place where they could get good solid
AppleScript advice without being bombarded by advocates of other languages
or technologies.
Maybe shell scripting is more effective for some things and maybe it is part
of AppleScript because it can be called from AppleScript, well, back in the
day, all those same arguments were made about Frontier and Javascript to the
point that AppleScript was lost on the MacScripters list. Now AppleScript is
getting lost in the Shell Scripting flood on the AppleScript Users list. And
because of that we're losing the AppleScript target market. Non-programmers
drawn by an easy to understand programming language come here and are
bombarded with what I consider to be among the most incomprehensible of
computer languages, when they should be getting the most easily understood
computer language.
All I'm asking (and I certainly hope I haven't been rude, I know I've been
persistent and stubborn, but not rude) is that detailed discussions about
shell scripting be referred to the Mac Scripter digest.
That list is a fine forum for scripting, it has been around a lot longer
than this one. It's usually pretty friendly (these days, anyway) and it has
a number of experts, many of the same top scripters who are on this list,
plus a few others, ready and willing to help out.
There's not much traffic on that list, and, most of threads are AppleScript
anyway. (AppleScript is, by the way, the most commonly used scripting
language on the platform). I subscribe to both lists, I have for about 10,
12 years now and I've learned a lot from both lists.
What's the harm in responding to a user with something like this:
"An appleScript solution might be a bit cumbersome for what you're trying to
do. Ask this question on the mac scripter digest and you'll get a few nifty
shell scripting solutions that you might like better".
Ok, shutting up... for now.
ES
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