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Teach Yourself AppleScript in 24 Hours
Teach Yourself Applescript in 24 Hours (TYA) from Sams Publishing is certainly up to date: it covers Applescript under OS 10.2 and the use of AppleScript Studio to build GUI applications using the language. That's its strength. The book's first weakness, though, is that it starts too far down the learning curve in my opinion. The first few chapters of TYA could be read by someone almost totally new to the Macintosh -- they cover such basics as running the scripts installed with the OS and getting new scripts from Apple and installing them. At the same time, they introduce basic AppleScript programming terminology not really required for these sorts of tasks such as suites, classes and commands. This material would have best waited a few chapters. It is not really until 'Hour 6', most of the way through the first part of the book, that it really sorts itself out and gets down to really teaching you AppleScript.
The Basics The book is divided into four parts: 'Getting Started With AppleScript,' which covers using scripts and basic programming concepts; 'Writing Scripts With Script Editor,' which takes you through using the Script Editor, details AppleScript syntax and how to script the Finder and various applications and using AppleScript Dictionaries; 'Working With AppleScript Studio,' which covers building AppleScript-based GUI applications using Project Builder and Interface Builder all the way through to complex applications that can store and retrieve documents; and a final section 'Advanced Scripting,' which covers Script Objects, scripting across a network (including SOAP and XML-RPC), and integrating scripts with the terminal and cron.
Each section is then divided up into chapters designed to be worked through in less than an hour ,with a small number of short exercises at the end. I found that most chapters took me about half an hour before I reached the exercises, which then took ten to fifteen minutes.
As you can see, almost everything you could ask for is touched on in this book. Once over the introductory chapters, I found the book to be well laid out, well structured and well written. I particularly liked Part III on AppleScript Studio; it started easily and worked up to quite an advanced little application explaining everything well along the way.
The Bad There are some things missing, however. Debugging is hardly mentioned (3/4 of one lesson), and debugging is not exactly trivial in AppleScript. I also found no mention of my pet demon with AppleScript; its incredibly strong typing and problems with having data in the wrong type; this is a classic problem with files and file names. In reality, this book teaches you the language without really getting down to teach you how to program in the language. A fine distinction, I know, but after just reading Learning Perl Objects, References & Modules, I found TYA to be light on real examples and real world code. Even the best section, the one on AppleScript Studio, didn't touch on many things you will need to know.
Sams have a page devoted to the book at the Sams web site, but frankly the URL is so long and cumbersome I don't dare risk putting it in a post. Go to the site and type 'AppleScript' in the search box. It has the table of contents and a sample chapter and some of the code from the book. The sample chapter is the third chapter 'Running The Scripts You Already Have' and really doesn't give you a good feel for how the book teaches you AppleScript programming. The page to download the code examples says "All the code developed for the book in one convenient download," but in fact all you get are the AppleScript Studio projects and source from four of the chapters. Oh, and the introduction says "There are even a few goodies on the web site that aren't in the book" -- they sure must be good as I couldn't find them.
In conclusion, I think this book starts too far down the learning curve and leaves off too early, with not enough detail. It seems a shame, what we have here is well laid out and well written, I wanted it to be better after I had finished. This book might suit someone absolutely new to the Mac who wanted to learn enough AppleScript to perform a few basic operations, for everyone else it'll be better to wait till October when AppleScript 1-2-3 will be out from Peachpit and AppleScript: The Definitive Guide will be out from O'Reilly, and we might have a better option. If you absolutely need to get some help with AppleScript Studio then borrow someone else's copy or find one second hand.
You can purchase Teach Yourself AppleScript in 24 Hours from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Yeah, go on, mod me down!
Apple used to be the mega music-maker brand. And that's why they bought emagic and stopped coding on any windows versions of their products.
Yesterday, this post would have been modded up +5 Informative.
or just not read the stories?
No DON'T vote for "anyone but bush"
VOTE DEMOCRATIC.
Those chumps voting for these fringe freaks like Larouche and Nader and simply VOTING FOR BUSH by NOT VOTING DEMOCRAT.
But what if I don't like the Democratic candidate. There still hasn't been one that represents what I believe in. They all talk about socialized medicine and more government programs, but then they get paid off by the corrupt businesses and none of it happens. Clinton may as well have been a Republican for all the good he did. Ideally, I'd love it if Dennis Kucinich from Ohio *REALLY* would hold to what he claims to believe in:
-Socialized medicine
-Environmental programs
-Less defense spending and the estabilshment of a Dept. of Peace
-Free speech
-Elimination of our nuclear arsenals
-More government funded education
-Health through better nutrition
-Corporate collusion busting
But even he won't be able to uphold those things. Something will happen to screw it up. Either he will be payed off like the rest of them (unlikely) or he will be killed by the Bush cabal (very likely). Howard Dean is a fucking punk ass who just mouths the words but doesn't have a clue what he believes in. That's what frustrates me the most about the current situation. You either vote what you believe (I voted for Nader last time) or you vote as a hypocrite and support the lesser of two evils (Gore in the last election). We are prisoners of our political system. There is no freedom in America because your vote doesn't count, and there will never be a candidate that will support everything that each of us believes in. Voting has become a farce because the US is just too big for the electoral college. Our "representatives" no longer represent us, instead they represent whoever foots the bill for their relection campaign. Yes folks, it's truly a shitabulous situation. I know I'll probably be voting a
s a hypocrite next election because it'll probably be that fucker Dean. And then I'll bitch and moan through his entire administration *if* he wins and *if* the Bush's don't rig the election again. Hmmm... we went into Iraq and bomed the hell out of their capital because they had rigged elections. I wonder if we can do the same to the Bush family? I'd love to see them all come to their just end.