Customer Reviews

AppleScript for Applications (Visual QuickStart Guide)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I just started learning AppleScript - I already know some other programming languages.

This book starts with a great 3-4 chapters that cover all of the basics of the AppleScript language in clear and concise explanations, ALWAYS with examples and screenshots. It was very easy for me to follow and I was ready to write my own scripts by the end of these starting chapters.

THEN THIS BOOK REALLY SHINES. Chapter after chapter of detailed scripting tips, examples and explanations for ALL THE APPS I REALLY USE. (Oh yeah, all the sample scripts can be downloaded from Peachpit's site - too cool!)

In my opinion, this book is the best thing ever for someone who really wants to use AppleScript. It is the ONLY book available that actually provides detailed scripts with step-by-step explanations for scripting tons of things on your Mac: many control panels, the Finder, FileMaker, Quark, and over 20 other apps...

Real users of AppleScript will find many things that alone make the book worthwhile. New scripters who actually follow the introductory scripting chapters will get a great bootstrap into the following chapters filled with real-world scripts and explanations of unique scripting tips for different applications.

I bought this book in hopes that I could automate my creative development process; what I got was a book that was so outdated none of the script's syntax would run. This looks like a cool book and certainly has some cool scripts if they worked in the newer version(s) of OSX. Don't buy this book if you work on anything newer than OSX 10.1

There's so much to learn about Applescripting, and the learning curve so high, that a "Visual Quickstart" approach is promising -- albeit a disappointment. After a straightforward introduction, expert Ethan Wilde leads us through a number of detailed scripts for use in apps like Filemaker and your browser. However, this book cannot be called a tutorial in any true sense of the word, and anyone looking for a reasonably comprehensive guide (as in Visual Quickstart's excellent volume for HTML 4) should look elsewhere. Several useful links for future learning are provided, but through no fault of the author, the carefully explained examples may not be relevant to even a plurality of users. Both OS9x and OSX are explored; given the limitations of space, this only further dilutes the final result.

3 recommendations for AppleScript users:

1) get Script Debugger - a great script editing environment
2) BUY THIS BOOK
3) download the sample scripts and head to the chapters that cover your favorite applications.

This is the best AppleScript book in print, hands down. And the author even answers AppleScript help emails - I know 'cause I've written to him!

This book deals not so much with a broad understanding of Applescript as much as it does how to do some basic things in different applications. The introductory section is great, but some of the really needed things for folks doing real automation, like creating and saving files under multiple names, printing files to multiple printers or appending files are not even touched. The examples are given good context, which is a plus, but I'm not sure this title was worth the cash, especially since a lot of the application titles have new versions out.

AppleScript is one of the reasons I switched platforms ten years ago, but trying to find decent books that teach this terrific tool is an exercise in frustration, especially if you are a beginner. If you are, this is not the first book you should buy. However, if you have written a couple of scripts on your own and want to see how to really use it with various applications, then this book is a find. It covers OS 9 and 10.1, and of course, cries out for an update, but until a new version comes out you can read this and learn a lot. Mr. Wilde explains each section of the script, letting you know what specific commands or sentences (AppleScript, is, after all, very close to plain english) do, which is a very good way to learn the subject. He's also written several other books on scripting, including one on scripting Adobe Illustrator; and it is clear he knows his stuff.

If you really want to understand Applescript I highly recommend you don't do like I did and waste your money on a poorly written guide. This book has a great lack of examples which actually show you the syntax of anything and you can waste hours trying to find out how to even code a simple path string in this book, which I did last week. I took my first programming classes 30 years ago in college. There are many poorly written computer books out there and this one is a classic in that category. I am just glad that Bruce Eckel and Ben Forta are much better authors (Java and ColdFusion) since I am a web developer by profession.

I need to correct my original review of this book. My initial impression was that it was too OS 9 specific, and that it would be better to wait for an OS X version. I've since spent more time with it and my first impression was wrong.

The book was printed in 2002, so I don't think we'll see the next edition until 2004. That's too long to go without this book. Even if you live in the OS X world, there's more than enough OS X or global AppleScript content to justify the purchase.

I've found the examples to be quite clear and very helpful. If it had more OS X coverage I'd give it five stars, but it well deserves a four star rating. Recommended.

Unclear if my problems learning AppleScript from this book stem from the book itself or from the language.

Programming concepts are very faintly discussed. Should you, the reader, ever dare to diverge from recipes in the text, you'll have to search online to find more thorough discussion of the language. And then, you'll be sifting through all the tutorials that date from pre-OS X.

Seek another book if you can find one, or better yet, stick to a real programming language like Perl.