Matt Neuburg

Applescript: The Definitive Guide

Scripting and Automating Your Mac

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

If you want to know all about AppleScript--the how, where, and why of using it - dig into AppleScript: The Definitive Guide. It doesn't make the mistake that other books do: it isn't about scripting this or that particular application, and it doesn't assume that learning AppleScript is easy or obvious. Instead, the book teaches and documents the language in a clear and rigorous manner, just as you'd expect with any programming or scripting language.

AppleScript is a dynamic, object-oriented scripting system that allows Mac users - even novices who know nothing about programming--to directly control Macintosh applications, including the Mac OS itself. You can write scripts to automate repetitive tasks, customize applications, and even control complex workflows.

AppleScript has always been useful, but with Mac OS X it's even more so. Nearly every application that comes with Mac OS X is scriptable. Even non-scriptable applications can often be driven with AppleScript, thanks to the

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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.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: O'Reilly Media
• 2nd ed.
• Seitenzahl: 590
• Erscheinungstermin: 7. Februar 2006
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 233mm x 181mm x 30mm
• Gewicht: 825g
• ISBN-13: 9780596102111
• ISBN-10: 0596102119
• Artikelnr.: 15220067

Autorenporträt

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.

Inhaltsangabe

Inhaltsverzeichnis Preface Part I. AppleScript Overview 1. Why to Use AppleScript The Nature and Purpose of AppleScript Is This Application Scriptable? Calculation and Repetition Reduction Customization Combining Specialties 2. Where to Use AppleScript Script Editor Internally Scriptable Application Script Runner Automatic Location Application Unix Hyperlinks Automator 3. Basic Concepts Apple Events The Open Scripting Architecture Script Compiling and Decompiling Compiled Script Files Script Text File Applet and Droplet Scripting Addition Dictionary Missing External Referents Modes of Scriptability Part II. The AppleScript Language 4. Introducing the Language A Little Language Extensibility and Its Perils The "English-likeness" Monster Object-likeness LISP-likeness The Learning Curve 5. Syntactic Ground of Being Lines Result Comments Abbreviations and Synonyms Blocks The 6. A Map of the World Scope Blocks Levels and Nesting The Top Level Code and the Run Handler Variables 7. Variables Assignment and Retrieval Declaration and Definition of Variables Variable Names 8. Script Objects Script Object Definition Run Handler Script Properties Script Objects as Values Top-Level Entities Compiled Script Files as Script Objects Inheritance 9. Handlers Handler Definition Returned Value Handlers as Values Parameters Pass by Reference Syntax of Defining and Calling a Handler Event Handlers The Run Handler Recursion Power Handler Tricks 10. Scope Regions of Scope Kinds of Variable Scope of Top-Level Entities Scope of Locals Scope of Globals Scope of Undeclared Variables Declare Your Variables Free Variables Redeclaration of Variables Closures 11. Objects Messages Attributes Class Target Get It Me Properties and Elements Element Specifiers Operations on Multiple References Assignment of Multiple Attributes Object String Specifier 12. References Reference as Target Reference as Incantation Creating a Reference Identifying References Dereferencing a Reference Trouble with Contents Creating References to Variables Reference as Parameter 13. Datatypes Application Machine Data Boolean Integer, Real, and Number Date String Unicode Text File and Alias List Record 14. Coercions Implicit Coercion Explicit Coercion Boolean Coercions Number, String, and Date Coercions File Coercions List Coercions Unit Conversions 15. Operators Implicit Coercion Arithmetic Operators Boolean Operators Comparison Operators Containment Operators Concatenation Operator Parentheses Who Performs an Operation 16. Global Properties Strings Numbers Miscellaneous 17. Constants 18. Commands Application Commands Standard Commands Logging Commands 19. Control Branching Looping Tell Using Terms From With Considering/Ignoring Errors Second-Level Evaluation Part III. AppleScript In Action 20. Dictionaries Resolution of Terminology Terminology Clash Nonsensical Apple Events Raw Four-Letter Codes Multiple-Word Terms What's in a Dictionary The 'aeut' Resource Inadequacies of the Dictionary 21. Scripting Additions Pros and Cons of Scripting Additions Classic Scripting Additions Loading Scripting Additions Standard Scripting Addition Commands 22. Speed Tools of the Trade Apple Events List Access Scripting Additions Context 23. Scriptable Applications Targeting Scriptable Applications Some Scriptable Applications 24. Unscriptable Applications Historical Perspective Getting Started with Accessibility GUI Scripting Examples 25. Unix Do Shell Script Osascript 26. Triggering Scripts Automatically Digital Hub Scripting Folder Actions CGI Application Timers, Hooks, Attachability, Observability 27. Writing Applications Applets AppleScript Studio C

Rezensionen

"Haben Sie sich schon mal gefragt, wie Sie Ihren Mac dazu bringen, nur für Sie zu ackern? Speziell jene alltäglichen Routinen, für die er eigentlich zusammengelötet wurde? Wenn Sie Ihre Wünsche in Mac-Befehle umsetzen wollen, ist AppleScript Ihr bester Freund [...]. Überwinden Sie also Ihren Respekt vor dem grimmig blickenden Hund, denn AppleScript - The Definitive Guide könnte ganz schnell Ihr treuester Begleiter werden." -- Mac Life, November 2006