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AppleScript Shell for Mac OS X

This is truly cool, if uber-geeky.

I've been coding of late. Working on a prototype for a new application that would, at least initially, integrate tightly into the Mac OS X operating system.

As such, I've been up to my ears in Objective C and AppleScript.

Thankfully, this discovery came at the perfect time.

It's a program, written in PERL, that provides for a command-line shell for AppleScript applications under Mac OS X. It's called "ash", for AppleScript Shell, and is available here.

It's just like the good old days. Programming in the '80s. Caveman style. Just the way I like it!

Many thanks to Hayne of Tintagel for this nice piece of work.

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Comments

  1. billpetroFebruary 1, 2007 at 6:19 AM

    Brian,

    I'd be interested in your report on the usefulness of "ash". Historically, AppleScript has been both like and unlike a Unix "shell" and it's utility seems to have been recently occluded by Automator.

    Thanks,

    -Bill Petro
    www.billpetro.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Brian BerlinerFebruary 1, 2007 at 7:19 AM

    Hi Bill,

    AppleScript is an extremely powerful scripting tool. You can build some very sophisticated applications using it in just a few lines of code. It is for programmers.

    Automator seems, to me, to be more of a casual GUI user that wants to do some basic automation within a simple workflow.

    Both have their uses and choosing one over the other will depend on what you are trying to do.

    I'm an old-school UNIX shell kinda guy. I appreciate the power and simplicity of AppleScript. "ash" gave me a command-line way to iterate in an application quickly. Automator just confuses me. Yeah, I'm a caveman.

    -Brian

    ReplyDelete

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