To reply to a lot of folks all at once. Now this was far more interesting conversation than the previous mess.
One point I'll make about product release cycles. When the newest version of automator/applescript was planned, one of the first things done on a project is an estimate of completion time. That estimate is updated any time it is found to be out of whack. For any reason. Just as the people in the project are tracked, what parts of the project are owned by whom, what individual project milestones are wand what their completion times are estimated at and all this is constantly updated. Professional
programming, that is to say, programming in a corporate setting such as exists at Apple, working in teams, there is as much paperwork involved as there is programming. I speak here from 36 years experience as a software engineer who has worked for many major corporations, including Apple (on what later became America Online - I'm ashamed to admit.)
Also, just to clarify, my book doesn't cover developing for Automator. It's a Visual QuickStart Guide, so it covers using Automator. AppleScriptObjC would be an entire book itself, and I've yet to tackle that project. ;-) There are some tutorials popping up, though, for anyone who may be interested, such as
I'll be interested in seeing your book when it comes out. Automator strikes me as a great tool, which is why I joined this group, but it seems to me that if you wish to use it in depth, which is my personal plan, learning
applescript is more than just handy. And thanks for the reference links.
Being completely new to automator and applescript - my previous programming having been in assembler, C (various) and python, I have to admit I have no idea at all about:
Ben hit the nail on the head about the difference between AppleScript
and AS Studio/AS ObjC.
I assume this is a resource for extending applescript with your own low level code?
Applescript, as possibly the primary scripting language for Automator (personally, I don't go that deep with Automator), the expanded concerns posted here may be more appropriately useful here:
http://lists.apple.com/mailman/listinfo/applescript-users
What extended concerns? Here is the thing that has been lost in this entire nonsensical debate. I simply asked if the book was useful or too out of date. And in passing mentioned that it annoyed me he would release an instantly out-of-date book. I was not starting an applescript discussion. I was not starting a discussion at all. I asked a question. And as a result get jumped on and persecuted - or what would you call someone submitting a removal request from this group for my email as if it had been from me? Hmm? Unbelievable. To think, all I was looking for was: No, you needn't worry, the book is fine today or: Yes, you're right to worry. Wow.