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Re: The Future of AppleScript
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Re: The Future of AppleScript


  • Subject: Re: The Future of AppleScript
  • From: Alastair Leith <email@hidden>
  • Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2014 19:29:31 -0700 (PDT)

Experience in either language will help you with the other. Like Shane says a big hurdle is getting a good understanding of the application object models. Having said that AS's syntax is much harder to become confident with than JS from my novice POV. Increased expressiveness brings increasingly subtle gotchas. 

On Sun, Aug 31, 2014 at 10:23 AM, Beinan Li <email@hidden> wrote:

Thanks for your reply, Shane. 

Although I was just looking for "insider's feed",
any kind of criticism, such as yours, is also what I need.

I think you have a point. On app scripting side, language isn't as important
as the APIs. But I wonder how different those API can be. Will _javascript_
have access to all the services that AppleScript enjoyed for years? Questions like those.

I think maybe waiting for the new OS to find out is the way to go.

My main concerns are 
1. Will they be functionally equivalent?
2. Will migration be easy.

Worst comes worst they can work as external processes with each other.

I only script apps occasionally, so I just wanna get things done. 
If AppleScript is going to stay and there are interoperability and easy migration 
with _javascript_s, then there will be no trouble at all. 

Btw, I just wrote an iTunes script in AppleScript for a "serious" task today.
It took some StackOverflow research but I think I can get by with the language.

I also learned basic _javascript_ in about an hour, though I haven't done anything useful with it.

So I guess I am a little relieved now.

Regards,
Beinan





On Sat, Aug 30, 2014 at 9:45 PM, Shane Stanley <email@hidden> wrote:
On 31 Aug 2014, at 3:00 am, Beinan Li <email@hidden> wrote:

> The questions is: Will _javascript_ have all the access that AppleScript does?

And the answer is: We'll know when it's released. It's fairly pointless speculating until then.

> If so, then it's quite possible that AppleScript loses its edge as a result and sink to the deprecation state.

Anything's possible. But the binary view that there can only be one of anything doesn't bear a lot of scrutiny.

> The thing is that I'm new to both AppleScript and _javascript_ and would like to
> focus on learning only one of them to get by in app scripting.

The hardest part of application scripting is not the language you use, but coming to grips with applications' object models, and the query-like nature of using Apple events. IMO the tools you can use to do that make a big difference. Let's see what _javascript_ brings.

With all your speculation about "a (long) decline", a "broader community", "loses its edge", and "sink to the deprecation state", it sounds like you've made up your mind already. Just keep in mind that predictions about the future of anything computer-related have a spectacularly high failure rate.

--
Shane Stanley <email@hidden>
<www.macosxautomation.com/applescript/apps/>


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