Re: What do we know about Scriptarian?
Re: What do we know about Scriptarian?
- Subject: Re: What do we know about Scriptarian?
- From: Deivy Petrescu <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 22 Nov 2016 16:36:40 -0500
> On Nov 22, 2016, at 11:15 , has <email@hidden> wrote:
>
> Deivy Petrescu wrote:
>> Phil, I bought it.
>> My goal now it is to quickly convert an AS to a Scriptarian script.
>> If I can accomplish this, I’ll be putting more information for all.
>
> While I could say how far it can take you, I'd much rather you arrive at your own. Just don't judge it on a toy script though, like ScriptingBridge and JXA, it'll do trivial stuff; it's only when you begin to press these "alternatives" that they start to show their real flaws: missing features, application incompatibilities, poor documentation, confusing behaviors.
This is not a problem, we expect problems from all software. It is also the user responsibility to report problems, which, as I told the developer, I will.
>
> (This is why I tell anyone who's serious about doing non-trivial or pro Automation not to even bother with SB/JXA, and to stick to AS no matter how they hate it cos it's the _only_ supported option that _always_ works.)
I don’t know if "always work” is the right expression, but certainly is the one that works better.
I did convert a script from AS to JAX and my conclusion is no benefit and some losses.
However, I am certainly glad that JAX came into being.
Depending on what I want to do, the convenience of having SE compile and run JavaScript is incredible.
>
>> It is swift based, and I am fighting wth the conversion process.
>> The environment seems well thought, it show errors on the fly.
>> It scans all the apps in your computer to see which one are “scriptarian” aps.
>> QT7 was among the ones it was not, although it is scriptable.
>> PDF Pen pro, version 5.9.9 (then I have is also not a scriptarian “app”.
>
> Similar for me and at least one other person who commented on it: I found it didn't detect most of my Adobe and MS apps. Did wonder if it was because they were in folders, but then I saw it had found Acrobat so I don't think it's that. Might be author did something foolish like looking for .sdef files directly in the .app bundle (wrong!) or, I think, a very likely answer is that it can't cope at all with imperfect application dictionaries—especially those from Carbon-based apps (which most of these are) as they tend to be more variable and quirky due to their entire scripting support being manually implemented, whereas Cocoa apps use CocoaScripting.framework to provide scriptability.
You are right, it does not get any app in folders. But it did not complaint about them, as it did with some apps, including QT7.
Interestingly, it did not include itself, which I think it should.
>
>> It has a nice help page and some examples, but you have to know Swift.
>
> If you had/could borrow an iPad you could trot through the Swift Playgrounds tutorials. No idea if it'd be worth it for you; it's basics like variables, values, loops & conditionals which you'll know.
I have all 3 plus Apple and O’Reilly books on Swift.
>
> If people here _really_ wanted a "5 minute guide to Swift for AS users", you can club together to arrange a bribe and I'll write one. (Club together a big enough bribe, it might even fit into 5 minutes!:)
Honestly, I would say don’t bother. And it is not related to you ability to deliver, I think the problem is in the receiving end.
It would be really hard to get the language without really going through some going pains.
Plus, as with ASOC, it requires a different way of thinking.
>
> ...
>
> When you're done with Scriptarian, let me know. I must finish the tutorial first, but then I'd like you to give SwiftAutomation a spin to see how it compares. It's pure AppleScript behavior under Swift syntax; it uses standard SDEF dictionary files for app documentation (only names are changed); there's even an app for translating AS commands to equivalent Swift syntax. As an AS veteran, hopefully you'll be able to tell how it matches up to AS in terms of feature equivalence and compatiblity with all scriptable apps available today (and, let's hope, tomorrow too!).
>
If you are talking to me, yes! I’ll be willing to test right now!
And … my ignorance might help you write an even better tutorial.
I am more than willing to be a beta tester, and happily buy the app when ready (you should sell it and not give it for free).
I was going to delve into ASOC after finishing some web projects, but given the recent developments and my addiction/dependence on AS I can’t wait any longer and if automation is going to go with Swift (and I agree with your assessment of the language) I am not willing to wait around.
By the way, since I also use AS for some Math problems, here is a bug in AS and in Swift (and I assume in Objective-C) it does integer division of a negative number by a positive number wrong.
That is, according to Swift and AS:
-33/5 = -6 (integer division)
when in reality
-33/5=-7 (integer division)
> Cheers
>
> has
>
>
Deivy Petrescu
email@hidden
_______________________________________________
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