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Matt Neuburg

AppleScript: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition Second Edition

by Matt Neuburg (Author)

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Mac users everywhere--even those who know nothing about programming--are discovering the value of the latest version of AppleScript, Apple's vastly improved scripting language for Mac OS X Tiger. And with this new edition of the top-selling AppleScript: The Definitive Guide, anyone, regardless of your level of experience, can learn to use AppleScript to make your Mac time more efficient and more enjoyable by automating repetitive tasks, customizing applications, and even controlling complex workflows.

Fully revised and updated--and with more and better examples than ever--AppleScript: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition explores AppleScript 1.10 from the ground up. You will learn how AppleScript works and how to use it in a variety of contexts: in everyday scripts to process automation, in CGI scripts for developing applications in Cocoa, or in combination with other scripting languages like Perl and Ruby.

AppleScript has shipped with every Mac since System 7 in 1991, and its ease of use and English-friendly dialect are highly appealing to most Mac fans. Novices, developers, and everyone in between who wants to know how, where, and why to use AppleScript will find AppleScript: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition to be the most complete source on the subject available. It's as perfect for beginners who want to write their first script as it is for experienced users who need a definitive reference close at hand.

AppleScript: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition begins with a relevant and useful AppleScript overview and then gets quickly to the language itself; when you have a good handle on that, you get to see AppleScript in action, and learn how to put it into action for you. An entirely new chapter shows developers how to make your Mac applications scriptable, and how to give them that Mac OS X look and feel with AppleScript Studio. Thorough appendixes deliver additional tools and resources you won't find anywhere else. Reviewed and approved by Apple, this indispensable guide carries the ADC (Apple Developer Connection) logo.

ISBN-10

0596102119
ISBN-13

978-0596102111
Edition

Second
Publisher

O'Reilly Media
Publication date

January 24, 2006
Language

English
Dimensions

7 x 1.13 x 9.19 inches
Print length

592 pages
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Matt Neuburg has been programming computers since 1968. He majored in Greek at Swarthmore College, and received his PhD from Cornell University in 1981. Hopelessly hooked on computers since migrating to a Macintosh in 1990, he's written educational and utility freeware, and became an early regular contributor to the online journal TidBITS. In 1995, Matt became an editor for MacTech Magazine. He is also the author of "Frontier: The Definitive Guide" and "REALbasic: The Definitive Guide" for O'Reilly.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ O'Reilly Media; Second edition (January 24, 2006)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 592 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0596102119
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0596102111
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.05 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7 x 1.13 x 9.19 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #806,918 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #96 in Mac Hardware
- #153 in Macintosh Operating System
- #322 in Mobile App Development & Programming

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Matt Neuburg

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Matt Neuburg started programming computers in 1968, when he was 14 years old, as a member of a literally underground high school club, which met once a week to do time-sharing on a bank of PDP-10s by way of primitive Teletype machines. He also occasionally used Princeton University's IBM-360/67, but gave it up in frustration when one day he dropped his punch cards. He majored in Greek at Swarthmore College and received his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1981, writing his doctoral dissertation (about Aeschylus) on a mainframe. He proceeded to teach classical languages, literature, and culture at many well-known institutions of higher learning, most of which now disavow knowledge of his existence, and to publish numerous scholarly articles unlikely to interest anyone. Meanwhile he obtained an Apple IIc and became hopelessly hooked on computers again, migrating to a Macintosh in 1990. He wrote some educational and utility freeware, became an early regular contributor to the online journal TidBITS, and in 1995 left academe to edit MacTech Magazine. In August 1996 he became a freelancer, which means he has been looking for work ever since.

He remains a contributing editor for TidBITS. He is the author of Programming iOS 4, AppleScript: The Definitive Guide, REALbasic: The Definitive Guide, and Frontier: The Definitive Guide, all from O'Reilly Media, Inc., and of several eBooks in the popular Take Control series. He has also written several online guides, such as his introduction to rb-appscript. He has taught in developer training programs such as the AppleScript Pro Sessions. He is the author of the online help for many prominent Mac applications, such as Script Debugger, Affrus, Opal, and MacSpeech Dictate. He has written such widely used Mac freeware as MemoryStick, NotLight, and Thucydides. He has created (and uses) his own open source Ruby-based Web site development framework, RubyFrontier. In 2007 he was voted by MacTech readers as one of the 25 most influential people in the Macintosh community. He has written several iPhone applications under his own name (search the iPhone app store under “Neuburg”), as well as the widely used TidBITS News, plus some additional applications created under contract that he isn’t allowed to talk about.

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5

49 global ratings

5 star		57%
4 star		25%
3 star		9%
2 star		3%
1 star		6%

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John Faughnan

Excellent book, but even better with Amazon or O'Reilly "search"

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 8, 2007

Verified Purchase

Matt Neuburg's AppleScript book is an excellent overview of AppleScript. Alas, it is limited, as all such books are, by AppleScript's peculiar nature.

The problem is that AppleScript is primarily useful when it interacts with scriptable Applications; this means that many important commands one may think of as belonging to AppleScript belong to Applications instead [2]. If you working to extend an existing script, and decide to research a command in the excellent book index Matt built himself [1], you'll often be frustrated. The command, you see, belongs to the Application, not to AppleScript.

On the other hand, there's a good chance Matt used in the command in one or more examples. In the absence of a companion book entitled "AppleScript for Applications" [3] you'd like to find those examples. Alas, that's where you want a full text search engine.

The good news is, there are two. The even better news is that O'Reilly could make their engine much more visible and useful, with advantages for everyone.

Consider the case of the 'Duplicate' command, which is supported by iTunes (among others) and the Finder (in slightly different ways, no doubt). When I tried Amazon's "search within the book" I discovered several illuminating references. Similarly, O'Reilly allows one to search within the book as a promotion for its Safari eBook library.

The Safari search works well, but they don't want to give away too much for free. You can only read a snippet of information in the search results. A snippet that doesn't, currently, include the page or section number. If you click further you get to the 'buy safari' screen, but you also get to see the section number. Now, you can return to the book and read the information.

O'Reilly could make all of us (and themselves) happy by keeping Safari just as closed as it is today, but merely adding a section reference to the search results they freely expose already.

Here's the win-win for O'Reilly, Matt, Amazon and us:

1. Include the section reference in the initial search results screen.
2. Promote the search facility in every published O'Reilly book and explain how to use it on the O'Reilly book page.
3. If need be, request readers register to obtain this service. O'Reilly doesn't do spam, but they can suggest email subscriptions, RSS feeds, etc during the registration process.

Let us count the wins:

1. Matt's book is suddenly a better book. Readers get more value from it. They use it more. They like it and O'Reilly more.

2. O'Reilly gets ongoing visits from its customers.

3. O'Reilly gets free, regular, promotion of Safari services.

4. Amazon sells more books.

5. O'Reilly does not reduce the value of Safari, they enhance it by introducing users to it without giving it away.

It's a win-win for everyone. I just hope someone at O'Reilly can see the profit in it for them.

john

[1] In my real life I'm a knowledge representation/informatics geek. I have a lot of respect for the unrecognized intellectual labor that goes into producing a truly excellent index. In this case Matt did the work himself!

[2] Many applications may use the same string to refer to somewhat similar functions with slightly different syntax and semantics. This "ontologic dilemma" is a kind of uncontrolled overloading, and it makes AppleScript very challenging to use.

[3] If Matt decides to sell an "AppleScript for Applications" as a Tidbits eBook I'll pay for mine in advance!

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Phil

not for beginners, but essential for everyone else

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 28, 2013

Verified Purchase

The most important thing you need to know before buying this book is some AppleScript. If you are looking for a book to teach you AS from the ground up, this is not it. What you most likely need for that is Apple Training Series: AppleScript 1-2-3 .

However, if you've already used Soghoian and Cheeseman, or Learn AppleScript: The Comprehensive Guide to Scripting and Automation on Mac OS X (Learn (Apress)) , then this most definitely is the book for you.

This is the book that will make the difference between you as a scripter who knows their way around but keeps getting stuck and looking things up on the internet and you as a scripter who can figure out stuff for themselves and help others who get stuck.

I'd been AppleScripting for months under the illusion that I knew my way around (even though I kept getting stymied trying to do anything new). The feeling you get when you actually write a script straight out of your head to solve a novel problem AND it compiles first time...ooohh!!! Scripter joy!! This book will help you get there, but like I said, if you're a beginner: look elsewhere first. This will only put you off.

7 people found this helpful

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RWH

The Definitive Text for AppleScript

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 24, 2020

Verified Purchase

This book is certainly the definitive text for really learning how to write AppleScripts. It is not easy, and it does not have a gentle intro that leads you into the language. The text assumes (perhaps more implicitly) that the reader knows something about a variety of other programming languages (PERL, Lisp come to mind). I will seek a more gentle into as I am starting at ground zero with AppleScript, but this will be my "go to" reference for subtle variations of the language. If you really want to leran AppleScript well and be able to write sophisticated code, this text is a must for your bookshelf.

3 people found this helpful

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Mental Monsoon

just like windows scripting but with a better operating system (Opinion)

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 15, 2018

Verified Purchase

As other zoo books, this is a detailed, book, maybe not for a beginner programmer, but a someone familiar with other types of scripting. To those who have used zoo books (The books all have a different animal on them), it is written in the familiar detailed style. Apple script is extremely powerful, just like windows scripting but with a better operating system (Opinion).

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H. Bruce

Written more as a narrative than a technical book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 27, 2009

Verified Purchase

First, I will state that I am a hands-on software development professional with thirty years' experience. So I have a little background on which to base my opinion. The style of this book makes it nearly impossible to produce answers to the practical questions that I have. The text dances all around any definitive answers, forcing the reader to intently analyze the information provided so that a practical solution can be formed. Clearly, the editor did not stop the author from continuing down the path of writing a book for those who are already quite familiar with applescript. If you are already an applescript programmer, this book might be of use. If you are attempting to learn by example and concept as I am, look elsewhere for explicit information. I will say that this book is an anomaly so far as O'Reilly books go as I generally find them to be quite excellent.

6 people found this helpful

Helpful

Jeffrey Strauss

Great for top-to-bottom understanding

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 8, 2007

Verified Purchase

Matt Neuburg has written a great text. It's easy to read and understand, and it's great a for a thorough understanding of the language. The first section of the book doesn't discuss code very much; moreso the practical application for the language in a real-world environment. The second section delves right into code, giving practical examples and helpful tips. After reading the first two chapters of the second section, I was writing simple programs to control applications. Great book for a beginning AppleScript programmer; even better book for a person completely new to programming.

2 people found this helpful

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Stewart E. White

Amazing!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 12, 2016

Verified Purchase

This is the third time that I bought this book. I wore out the first one; the second one is on my shelf; and this third one is a new revision that is on my Kindle. I have many AppleScript books but this one is the bible!

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Iain

An antidote to the post-truth age.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 26, 2020

Verified Purchase

Still worth reading even though You May think AppleScript is redundant: it is not. Even though these days you have a choice of alternatives, there are some things which are still most efficiently achieved with AppleScript. Most importantly, you will enjoy having this particular author reveal to you the elegant Apple Events model behind this quirky (actually not-so-quirky) language. “Technical” writing at its very best.

One person found this helpful

Luca Concon

Applescript

Reviewed in Italy 🇮🇹 on May 19, 2021

Verified Purchase

Good book for a beginner who doesn't know anything about programming, but I was looking for something more in-depth.
In any case, it was useful for me to get a general idea of how it interfaces with the other programs.

meetewlul

Theorie und Praxis

Reviewed in Germany 🇩🇪 on July 2, 2017

Verified Purchase

Wenn Sie MacOS-Applications scripten wollen, dann müssen Sie scripten = Fehler machen (AppleScript ist keine sehr entgegenkommende Sprache) und nach Lösungen suchen. Und hier hilft die Theorie im Matt Neuburgs Buch - wahrscheinlich wie kein anderes. Es greift auch wie kein anderes seeeeehr tief in den Stoff hinein. Und ist sehr interessant geschrieben, spannend.
Ich empfehle als Zusatzmaterial die AppleScript Language Guide und unbedingt das Buch von Hanaan Rosenthal.
AppleScript scheint obsolet zu werden. Die neue MacOS-Parole - Swift.
Wohlan!

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Pierre

Déception

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on October 23, 2017

Verified Purchase

Jamais vu un livre aussi mal écrit. Aucune structure ou direction.

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