Re: on neophytes vs perfectionists (was Re: Tell Blocks Considered Harmful)
Re: on neophytes vs perfectionists (was Re: Tell Blocks Considered Harmful)
- Subject: Re: on neophytes vs perfectionists (was Re: Tell Blocks Considered Harmful)
- From: "John C. Welch" <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2008 08:52:55 -0800
- Thread-topic: on neophytes vs perfectionists (was Re: Tell Blocks Considered Harmful)
On 12/18/08 12:36 AM, "Paul Scott" <email@hidden> wrote:
> 4) Applescript can't run by itself the way a shell script can. It has
> to connect to a window server, so it can't run well out of crontab or
> launchd without the user being "logged in".
That's not completely correct. It just can't do a LOT without a logged in
user, because it's not designed to.
>
> 5) It's not suited for generalized scripting. Any use beyond
> controlling an active GUI application is severely limited.
I completely disagree, because the clear majority of the scripts I write
don't control GUI applications, and have been for years and years.
However, again, AppleScript was designed to be a relay between things that
send and receive AppleEvents, and most of those are user applications. If
you're not a sysadmin or in IT in some form, the need for truly headless
scripts is rather small.
>
> 6) It's greatest strength is "do shell script"!!! I find myself
> escaping from AppleScript to do things that are too difficult
> otherwise, either because the language is too weak, or there's no
> clear solution.
No, because there are lots of things AppleScript does well where the use of
another language would be a PITA. But that's the way of tools.
I see a lot of problems with AppleScript which are more correctly described
as "I have this hammer, and it won't cut this board worth a darn, so I tied
a saw too it, and it still sucks. Hammers suck." If the language won't do
what you need it to without a ton of bizarre workarounds, and another
language will, use the other language.
However, I find that the "do shell script" idea is brilliant, and one that
shows a refreshing acknowledgement from the AppleScript team that no, they
don't think AppleScript is the alpha and omega of programming languages. In
the infinite language war, that's really nice to see. It's made AppleScript
more useful for at least my needs, and I'm very grateful to whomever made
the decision to add it.
--
Yes, popping a paper bag in the mall makes a very loud noise. Yes, you can
hear that shit echoing all through the place. Yes, rent-a-cops all suck.
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