On Oct 29, 2009, at 3:10 PM, Alan Alpar wrote:
I'm interested in purchasing AppleScript 1-2-3 by, Sal Soghoian. My concern is, is it up-to-date for snow leopard? It seems Automator has changed in some annoying ways from the Leopard version - even to the point of how you create new files - and I don't want a book I have to keep translating from the leopard way to the snow leopard way, I'd just as soon use the docs on the Apple dev site
As Sal's coauthor, I'm closer to the horse's mouth than the others who have responded. Let me take a stab at answering your question.
The book is meant to be an introduction to AppleScript for readers who are relative beginners at it, and then to take them a considerable distance toward more advanced techniques. Much of the material near the beginning of the book is taken from Sal's very popular presentations about AppleScript at computer shows around the world, and these passages attempt to some extent to capture Sal's inimitable and much-loved style. I believe the discussions and example scripts in the book are valid for Snow Leopard as well as Leopard, but Sal and I haven't yet had time to go over all of them one by one looking for any Snow Leopard adjustments that might be needed. We intend to do that in due course, and any issues we find will be addressed on the book's errata site. I don't expect to find many. As to Automator and AppleScript Studio, the book does not deal with them at all except to tell you that they're there and worthy of your attention. They are first mentioned on page 840 of an 849-page book (leaving aside the index).
The suggestion made by one responder to look at the AppleScript release notes is a good one. You should look at the release notes every time the operating system is revised, because there are usually bug fixes and a few additions to AppleScript in every new version. The Snow Leopard release notes reflect fewer changes to AppleScript than some other version revs that I recall (and I go back to 1993 with AppleSript).
By the way, the German translation arrived in my mailbox yesterday. "AppleScript 1-2-3 - Aufgaben automatisieren mit dem Mac" from Addison-Wesley. Unlike the English version, it was released after Snow Leopard, and we see no need to make any apologies for that.
As is my custom, I will decline to respond to flames, but I will be happy to answer questions as time permits. I would also welcome specific references to any out-of-date material you might find in the first edition -- respond offlist as to those, please.