Re: [rant] "Never mind the quality, feel the width!"
Re: [rant] "Never mind the quality, feel the width!"
- Subject: Re: [rant] "Never mind the quality, feel the width!"
- From: Rob Lewis <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 04 Dec 2014 07:20:23 -0800
| I haven’t actually found the beginning of this thread, but I’d like to add a possibly relevant comment:
For nigh onto 20 years now, I’ve been running my home automation system with a program called XTension (from shed.com). Without launching into a sub-rant about how great XTension is, I’ll just note that it is completely AppleScript-based (not written in AppleScript, but set up so any event can fire a script). And years ago, the developers added the ability for web pages to run AppleScripts (including those having nothing to do with home automation).
Now, home automation is a notoriously difficult nut to crack, mostly because every person is different and every home is different. It’s pretty much impossible to provide “canned” solutions for any but the simplest tasks. People who are serious about it basically have to script their own desired behaviors. And that’s where AppleScript really shines: it’s relatively easy—even for a non-programmer—to take someone else’s script and modify it to do exactly what you want. And of course the PC world has nothing like it.
I’ve held my breath for years, wondering if/when Apple would finally pull the plug on this great technology (which is probably the single biggest reason I’ve stayed with the Mac platform). The recent signs of life have been a welcome surprise—it hardly seems Apple would continue to enhance something that was on the chopping block.
Looking to the future, it will be most interesting to see how HomeKit evolves. I’ve been predicting/promoting the notion that an enhanced version of Automator could be the key that unlocks custom home automation for mere mortals. And of course, Automator can run AppleScripts! Get a few million people tinkering with this, and a certain percentage will move on to more advanced solutions like XTension.
|
_______________________________________________
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