Thursday, November 11, 2004

AppleScript: A Comprehensive Guide to Scripting and Automation on OS X

Hanaan Rosenthal has written a book about AppleScript:

Another book about AppleScript? No, not really; this is the book about AppleScript. There are enough books that either summarize the language or just touch on the basics; this one is written for real people who need to use AppleScript to get real things done.
This book starts from the scripter’s point of view. It is organized based on the way the scripter uses the language, and pulls together all aspects of the language that pertain to that subject.

My favorite AppleScript book is AppleScript: The Definitive Guide. It’s kind of like the Think Unix of AppleScript: it’s clear, concise, and gets you to think about the language in the right way. It doesn’t teach you how to do many specific things with AppleScript, but it gives you the proper foundation to solve new problems on your own.

But every cerebral book could use a good cookbook (e.g. Unix Power Tools) as a companion. I haven’t read it yet, but with 888 pages full of examples, perhaps that’s what Rosenthal’s book tries to be.

1 Comment RSS · Twitter

[...] Matt Neuburg has finished the second edition of my favorite AppleScript book. MDJ says that the second edition has more examples and adds chapters on AppleScript Studio and making applications scriptable, but O’Reilly hasn’t posted a table of contents or sample chapter yet. [...]

Leave a Comment