{"id":34227,"date":"2021-11-22T16:35:55","date_gmt":"2021-11-22T21:35:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=34227"},"modified":"2021-11-26T14:55:11","modified_gmt":"2021-11-26T19:55:11","slug":"the-unexpected-return-of-javascript-for-automation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/the-unexpected-return-of-javascript-for-automation\/","title":{"rendered":"The Unexpected Return of JavaScript for Automation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Armin Briegel<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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One reason python became so popular with MacAdmins, was that the pre-installed python on Mac OS X, also came with PyObjC, the Objective-C bridge for python.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

I’ll be honest here and admit that working with JXA seems strange, inconsistent, and — in weird way — like a step backwards. Putting together a Command Line Tool written in Swift<\/a> feels like a much more solid<\/em> (for lack of a better word) way of solving a problem.<\/p>\n

However, the Swift binary command line tool has one huge downside: you have to install the binary on the client before you can use it in scripts and your management system.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

However, as flawed as it is, JXA can be a simple replacement for the classic python “one-liners” to get data out of a macOS system framework. Other interesting use cases are being discovered, such as JSON parsing<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Python is no longer the favored choice because “Monterey will now throw up dialogs warning the user.”<\/p>\n

AppleScriptObjC is built-in, however.<\/p>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n