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.
AppleScript's home
Aug 23, 2009 @ 02:00 PM - Filed in:
News
Recently I tried to visit www.apple.com/applescript only to find I was redirected
to a page devoted to describing the applications included in Mac OS
X, specifically Automator.
Because that seems odd to me I thought perhaps Apple moved it and mistakenly directed visitors to the wrong location. Using Google, I discovered that what appears to be the entire content of www.apple.com/applescript has been moved to www.macosxautomation.com and I don't understand why. But I thought I would mention it to my visitors in case others were having trouble finding AppleScript's home as well.
Because that seems odd to me I thought perhaps Apple moved it and mistakenly directed visitors to the wrong location. Using Google, I discovered that what appears to be the entire content of www.apple.com/applescript has been moved to www.macosxautomation.com and I don't understand why. But I thought I would mention it to my visitors in case others were having trouble finding AppleScript's home as well.
Editing version names and other news
Since I put this site up I have had a
few people ask me for assistance with a script they are writing to
automate Aperture. First, let me say I'm happy to hear users of
Aperture are interested in automating Aperture as well as find this
web site useful. And secondly, I am happy to help improve the
content of this site using reader feedback.
A while ago I received a request for help from a reader/user that wanted to change an image version's Exif Image Date by 2 minutes. After thinking about the solution of his problem I realized that this script is far more useful than changing the Exif Image Date by 3 years. So I decided to remove my time shift script on the Metadata page that incremented the image date by 3 years with a script that will add 1 hour to the image date. Why not 2 minutes? Because I want to not only illustrate how to time shift but also provide a useful script to a wider audience. I assume more people will want to change their images' date in increments of an hour to deal with daylight savings time or a change in time zones than will want to change the minute or second. Either way, the modification required is very slight.
Another reader/user recently asked me a question concerning a script he was writing that will remove the file extension from the name of the image version. I thought it was strange that Aperture somehow placed the file extension in the image version name. After playing around with Batch Change, I realized if you change the image version name to the master filename, the images will be named something like: filename.cr2
Since some users of Aperture may see this as a problem and it can be created within the GUI of Aperture, I decided to a script that will get a selection of images and remove a file extension from the version name. You will need to modify the script so that it finds the particular file extension you want found. For those that may not realize where to change the script to handle your individual needs, I left a comment just below the line that should be modified. Enjoy.
DISCLAIMER: I outright stole the find and replace function from Nigel Garvey which was posted a forum post on MacScripter. Since it was posted on a forum of a site devoted to learning AppleScript and this site does not collection money, I assumed I was ok to posted the function here.
A while ago I received a request for help from a reader/user that wanted to change an image version's Exif Image Date by 2 minutes. After thinking about the solution of his problem I realized that this script is far more useful than changing the Exif Image Date by 3 years. So I decided to remove my time shift script on the Metadata page that incremented the image date by 3 years with a script that will add 1 hour to the image date. Why not 2 minutes? Because I want to not only illustrate how to time shift but also provide a useful script to a wider audience. I assume more people will want to change their images' date in increments of an hour to deal with daylight savings time or a change in time zones than will want to change the minute or second. Either way, the modification required is very slight.
Another reader/user recently asked me a question concerning a script he was writing that will remove the file extension from the name of the image version. I thought it was strange that Aperture somehow placed the file extension in the image version name. After playing around with Batch Change, I realized if you change the image version name to the master filename, the images will be named something like: filename.cr2
Since some users of Aperture may see this as a problem and it can be created within the GUI of Aperture, I decided to a script that will get a selection of images and remove a file extension from the version name. You will need to modify the script so that it finds the particular file extension you want found. For those that may not realize where to change the script to handle your individual needs, I left a comment just below the line that should be modified. Enjoy.
Remove
file extension from the version name.
tell
application
"Aperture"
set
imgSel
to (get
selection)
end
tell
if
imgSel
is {}
then
error "Please select
an image."
else
repeat
with i
from 1
to count
of imgSel
set imgName
to name
of item i
of imgSel
set newimgName
to findAndReplace(".CR2",
"", imgName)
--Replace .CR2 with the
string you want to remove.
tell application
"Aperture"
tell item i
of imgSel
set name
to newimgName
end
tell
end
tell
end
repeat
end
if
on
findAndReplace(tofind,
toreplace,
TheString)
set ditd
to text item
delimiters
set text item
delimiters
to tofind
set textItems
to text items
of TheString
set text item
delimiters
to toreplace
if (class
of TheString
is string)
then
set res
to textItems
as string
else --
if (class of
TheString is Unicode text) then
set res
to textItems
as Unicode
text
end
if
set text item
delimiters
to ditd
return res
end
findAndReplace
DISCLAIMER: I outright stole the find and replace function from Nigel Garvey which was posted a forum post on MacScripter. Since it was posted on a forum of a site devoted to learning AppleScript and this site does not collection money, I assumed I was ok to posted the function here.
Export command and selection property
I recently received an email from a
visitor wondering why his export script produced an error when
attempting to export a single image out of Aperture.
From his email I realized I omitted a few valuable simple scripts from my collection of sample scripts that would have helped him answer several of his questions. Therefore I'm happy he emailed me as his feedback helps to improve this site.
I failed to have a simple selection script and a very simplistic export script. Both scripts have been added to the site. The selection script can be found at the bottom of the Basics page. And the new export script can be found at the top of the Exporting page.
One other thing I failed to mention about exporting images is the export command only handles lists of image versions. Attempting to export a single image will produce an error which was the root of the visitor's problem.
If your script generates an error but you feel everything should work, be sure to take a close look at the Applescript Dictionary for Aperture. The dictionary should provide all the necessary information to successfully use a command, class, or property. In this particular case the dictionary does state the export command exports a "List of image versions or projects to be exported." Overlooking something such as this is easy to do.
From his email I realized I omitted a few valuable simple scripts from my collection of sample scripts that would have helped him answer several of his questions. Therefore I'm happy he emailed me as his feedback helps to improve this site.
I failed to have a simple selection script and a very simplistic export script. Both scripts have been added to the site. The selection script can be found at the bottom of the Basics page. And the new export script can be found at the top of the Exporting page.
One other thing I failed to mention about exporting images is the export command only handles lists of image versions. Attempting to export a single image will produce an error which was the root of the visitor's problem.
If your script generates an error but you feel everything should work, be sure to take a close look at the Applescript Dictionary for Aperture. The dictionary should provide all the necessary information to successfully use a command, class, or property. In this particular case the dictionary does state the export command exports a "List of image versions or projects to be exported." Overlooking something such as this is easy to do.