Applescript in a nutshell

• Bruce W. Perry
• O'Reilly
• 1565928415

Order (or just read more about) Applescript in a nutshell  from Amazon.com

Applescript is Apples's scripting language. Although Mac OS X includes Perl, Python, Ruby and more, it also has Applescript.

Right off the bat I might as well say it: I don't like Applescript very much. It's picky and arbitrary, and anything but user friendly. On the other hand, if you aren't trying to do too much with it, it is very useful for controlling Mac OS X applications, and you can always farm the harder parts out to Perl or whatever. Or vice versa: you can use "osascript" within shell scripts even.

I'm sure my distaste for Applescript colors my feelings toward this book. I'd surely like it much more if I enjoyed Applescript itself. It's hard to get enthusiastic about something you feel is fighting you every step of the way. Nonetheless, this book is much better than the sparse help you'll find in Mac OS X itself. It is much more of a reference manual than a learning guide; although it gives examples liberally, they are usually out of context and confusing for someone new to the language. But then Applescript is confusing anyway.

Comments?

More Articles by Tony Lawrence - Find me on Google+

Jump to Comments

Many of the products and books I review are things I purchased for my own use. Some were given to me specifically for the purpose of reviewing them. I resell or can earn commissions from the sale of some of these items. Links within these pages may be affiliate links that pay me for referring you to them. That's mostly insignificant amounts of money; whenever it is not I have made my relationship plain. I also may own stock in companies mentioned here. If you have any question, please do feel free to contact me.

Specific links that take you to pages that allow you to purchase the item I reviewed are very likely to pay me a commission. Many of the books I review were given to me by the publishers specifically for the purpose of writing a review. These gifts and referral fees do not affect my opinions; I often give bad reviews anyway.

We use Google third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, click here.