The life of AppleScript
Oct 03, 2009 @ 01:52 PM -
MacWorld has an interesting article that questions whether AppleScript is alive
and kickin or dead and Apple should move on and fill the
void.
I personally don't think the language is dead. But it could be if Apple doesn't take it seriously. Things to improve: the language itself (why does it force the scripter to handle file paths?!), the script editor (either make XCode the script editor or make the current script editor a full featured editor and debugger), make implementing AppleScript easier for developers (no one will use it if it doesn't exist), and make AppleScript's recordability easier to implement (maybe power users can learn faster by watching than by reading, besides not everyone has the time to read, try, read some more, hang head, and repeat). Oh yeah, I almost forgot....more documentation (example scripts and snippets, and reference guides for each scriptable application and scripting addition).
Although its over a year old, Daniel Jalkut, the developer of MarsEdit, wrote an article noting that Apple appears to place more time and attention on improving JavaScript performance for WebKit than they do for the system wide scripting language, AppleScript. Although I agree with the sentiment, I disagree with the idea of making JavaScript the system wide scripting language. I think the major strength of AppleScript is its fairly easy to learn which means power users should be able to use it with minimal problems.
If anyone reading this agrees that AppleScript has major problems that don't seem to be getting the attention the language deserves, I encourage you to contact Apple or write up bugs and feature requests and let them know.
I personally don't think the language is dead. But it could be if Apple doesn't take it seriously. Things to improve: the language itself (why does it force the scripter to handle file paths?!), the script editor (either make XCode the script editor or make the current script editor a full featured editor and debugger), make implementing AppleScript easier for developers (no one will use it if it doesn't exist), and make AppleScript's recordability easier to implement (maybe power users can learn faster by watching than by reading, besides not everyone has the time to read, try, read some more, hang head, and repeat). Oh yeah, I almost forgot....more documentation (example scripts and snippets, and reference guides for each scriptable application and scripting addition).
Although its over a year old, Daniel Jalkut, the developer of MarsEdit, wrote an article noting that Apple appears to place more time and attention on improving JavaScript performance for WebKit than they do for the system wide scripting language, AppleScript. Although I agree with the sentiment, I disagree with the idea of making JavaScript the system wide scripting language. I think the major strength of AppleScript is its fairly easy to learn which means power users should be able to use it with minimal problems.
If anyone reading this agrees that AppleScript has major problems that don't seem to be getting the attention the language deserves, I encourage you to contact Apple or write up bugs and feature requests and let them know.