variables vrs properties
variables vrs properties
- Subject: variables vrs properties
- From: Jim Brandt <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2011 09:10:41 -0600
What exactly are the advantages/disadvantages to using properties
over variables?
Property • global within scope
• retains value until script is recompiled
Variable • global within scope only if declared global
• doesn't retain value between executions
Other than these two distinctions, is there any reason to use a
property over a variable?
Along these same lines, some here have suggested I use a .plist file
to set certain predefined values (I was asking specifically about a
default file location for source and library files).
Why would a .plist file be advantageous over just a plain text file?
Either way, if have to run code to set a variable and thus can't use
properties built on that variable, which is the original intent.
I have read Luther's Property List tutorial. While it describes some
of how to read and write all or part of a .plist file from
Applescript, it still doesn't answer --why-- I would want to do this?
While I am an old school programmer (Fortran, Cobol and some PHP),
and have a fair understanding of programming methods, I have never
used Xcode or any other tools Apple provides to program my Mac other
than AS and a very little Unix cmd line stuff.
I'm using 10.4.11 on a PowerPC as my main platform and thus only have
Xcode 2. Luther's tutorial addresses features in the Property List
Editor that showed up in Xcode 3, which requires an Intel processor.
Thus I question why I need to go through the process of learning a
whole new technology to create and use one file for the specific
purpose of pointing scripts to a source location.
While the learning of new technology can be a good thing, it seems
like a little overkill here.
Am I missing something?
Thanks for listening to my rants.
Jim _______________________________________________
Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.
AppleScript-Users mailing list (email@hidden)
Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription:
Archives: http://lists.apple.com/archives/applescript-users
This email sent to email@hidden