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AppleScript for System Admins WebCast

Posted by pudge on from the tell-app-"Finder"-to-stop-crashing dept.

Justin Elliott writes "Watch Apple Computer's own AppleScript wizard, Sal Soghoian, present 'AppleScript For System Admins' during Mac OS X Labs' September 24 webcast. Learn about essential AppleScript tools and tips under Mac OS X. Discover how AppleScript can be used for administrative tasks, and how to use AppleScript to effectively interact with the Mac OS X file system."

3 of 23 comments (clear)

  1. I like AppleScript, but... by supton · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I wonder sometimes what Apple doesn't gradually dump AppleScript for Python? Think about it: it would give them a scripting platform as powerful as powerful as Java, but (nearly) as simple as AppleScript (perhaps more readable, and certainly more maintainable). Python 2.3 is going to get bundled with Panther, and is used in some core "essential functionality" in Panther and already has bindings to pretty much everything one would needs to tightly stitch to Apple's platform (ojbc, quartz, Java apps via JPE, etc).

    1. Re:I like AppleScript, but... by gerardrj · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Or for that matter, why not Perl. If you co scan CPAN you'll see Perl modules that will connect you in to most of the useful parts of OS X.

      It's simple really: Apple prefers to do things in house where they have control. They don't have to fight with anyone or any standards body to revise or extent Applescript.

      I can certainly see AppleScript going away in a few more revisions of the OS. With Project Builder so simple to use, Apple may just decide that actual binary programs are so easy to create that AppleScript is just no longer necessary.

      Remember... Applescript was developed as a fast and easy way for people to manage small tasks without the drudgery of writing in C. In Project Builder you nary need a line of code, just drag, drop and fill in the blanks, thus eliminating the drugery.

      --
      Article X: The powers not delegated... by the Constitution...are reserved...to the people
    2. Re:I like AppleScript, but... by scrotch · · Score: 3, Informative

      Serious question:
      Can Python (or Perl, or anything else) interact with other running OS X programs?

      That's why we've used Applescript with OS 9 so much. We can write scripts that tell Quark XPress what to do. We can pull info from FileMaker and format it and place it in Quark auto-magicly. We've written scripts that manipulate text in Quark text boxes without ever leaving Quark - like they're just another menu item. We can do similar things with Outlook Express and BBEdit and any number of other apps. I've written a bunch of Applescripts, but very few that didn't interact with at least one commercial application.

      Now if I can replace
      FileMaker <- Applescript -> Quark
      with
      MySQL <- Python/Perl/etc -> Quark
      that would seriously rock. Are you saying I can do that? Can you post a link to some info on getting started?