Inch By Inch

I try to spend some time each day reading and using the Script Editor of the AppleScript system that comes with the Mac operating system. This is idealism pure and simple. Probably a mental habit inherited from my Libra father. He was big on ideals. I really got the idea when I was using a Windows box. The basic idea was that I learn the difference between the fundamentals of the operating system so thoroughly that I could discriminate any problems I had with the applications I installed on it. Is it the music or Memorex?

With Windows I never found a starting point for learning the operating system itself. I'm sure there is one, it just never presented itself to me in a coherent fashion such that I could apply my talents for wading through boilerplate to it. Of course, I didn't realize that I possess a talent for wading through the rudiments of a subject or topic until recently, and that had more to do with all the ti-me I've been spending meditating recently than minding my digital Ps & Qs.

This AppleScript project probably came to the fore when I wanted to control the formatting of how my e-mail Reply posts. I tried all sorts of ways to get my reply posts to look like what I wanted them to for the potential readers on the e-mail discussion lists I subscribe to. I searched through all the Mail.app Preferences to locate the mechanism for controlling the appearance of the posts I sent out and there was nothing there that would do the trick.

Maybe that's when I started wondering if AppleScript might give me some leverage, so I started reading. The first notion that looked promising was that I discovered that there are lots of ready-made AppleScripts available. Initially, before I got into the reading too deep, it seemed like the easiest thing to do to find out if using a script to set up my reply pages like I wanted them to be.

I sort of tried that and it only confused me more. Mostly because the more I tried to do it the easy way, the more I realized the learning curve was too steep for a simple fix. I kept reading though. Then, I did what I've grown to habitually do these days. I looked for an e-mail discussion group to see what other people were doing about it. The Apple web site pointed me to their own listserver.

Apple has lots of discussion lists for people who use Apple computers. There were several e-mail lists for serious programmers and developers, and... AHA!... they had an AppleScript group that welcomed beginners. I signed up immediately. Apparently, the Apple employees that set this deal up were very familiar with the needs of their clients. It's almost like they consulted with me to see if what I needed was there. Yeah... right.

I haven't any idea if I'll carry through on this project and learn enough about AppleScript to brag about, but so far in my brief efforts I've learned a lot about the Apple operating system. Particularly what Apple calls the "Finder". The script samples I keep running into appear to use the Finder application to lay out how to use AppleScript, so booting up a "Finder" page using scripts is getting to be old hat already.

The event horizon and motivation for me being lured into thinking I may actually stick with this project harks back to my first idea about learning the Windows operating system. People write about how AppleScript is implemented in most every third-party application written for the Apple operating system. Learning AppleScript segues to nearly everything a user can do on the Apple system, and that's just for starters.

Every software program that contains an AppleScript Dictionary in it has something in common with every other software program. All the Adobe software has an AppleScript Dictionary a user can employ to use any or all of Adobe's programs, which themselves have much in common due to the genre or class of software they produce. By that I mean, anything a user learns in one Adobe software program can be useful in the other Adobe programs.

There are some tutorials around. AppleScript 1-2-3 is the title of Apple's own tutorial. Because it exists, there aren't many others around. Apple will break bad on you for the least suggestion that what you're doing ain't gwine put no money in their hip pocket. It's just part of the deal. If you're gonna do Apple, then Apple is gonna do you if you try to take short-cuts and not grease they palm. No blame, I guess.

I ain't buying their AppleScript tutorial book yet. It's not that expensive when I shop around. List is $44 at the Apple store. The printer sells it for $37, and Amazon is a little lower still. I want and need that tutorial, but I ain't buying nothing that don't cover 64-bit operating systems. Snow Leopard is probably less than a month away. I'm waiting for that to happen and see how that flies.

I can't imagine very much will change in AppleScript itself, but all the target addresses will probably change somewhat. If I'm gonna work a tutorial and have to figure out the paths to all those folder targets, then I might as well wait until Snow Leopard arrives, and start learning all the paths to use by name then.

Meanwhile, I'm reading the AppleScript Language Guide provided free in a .pdf file from Apple. I'm on page 41 of 262 pages. It's a technical read, so I'm not breezing through it. I try to work all the examples from this document, and from the posts the discussion list members include scripts with too.

I'm not in a hurry. "Inch by inch, it's a cinch!", The veterans on the AppleScript discussion list recommend reading this .pdf on a regular basis in their communications with other power users, so despite delaying the purchase of the tutorial until after Snow Leopard takes the stage, in the interim, I'm performing a chore I'd probably have to do eventually anyway.