In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Chip Howland) wrote:
At 1:10 AM +0900 7/11/03, Robin wrote: >But if I have to have a double clickable perl script I prefer using >the '.command' technique because I really believe Apple should just >go ahead and use Perl as the scripting language and put AppleScript >to bed along with OS9
Well, that's flat-out ridiculous.
Perl is HARD compared to Applescript.
That is a matter of opinion.
Actually, it's NOT a matter of opinion. Many people have differing opinions, but that's not the same thing.
It's a matter of marketing, flat out.
AppleScript is Turing complete. Perl is Turing complete. Ergo, anything you can do in one you can do in the other. In either language, I personally find that sometimes I'd rather be programming a Turing machine, but that's different.
However, AppleScript is a "scripting" language, and Perl is a "programming language" - at least by marketing.
You don't have to be a "programmer" to use a "scripting" language, whereas *obviously* you have to be a programmer to use a "programming" language. The fact that you have to be a programmer in order to use a "scripting" language *well* is elided so as not to confuse the huddled masses.
AppleScript fills the same niche that VisualBasic does. As such, until Microsoft does something sensible (I can't believe I just said that) like adopt a standardized language for their own "scripting" language, AppleScript will be the Apple marketed "scripting" language for MacOS.
All of the faults of the OSA object model and the events and objects that individual applications expose and fail to document are solely the fault of the people developing those applications. Apple has made very big efforts to create standard events and objects that all app developers *should* use. But when the three biggest developers of applications for MacOS are Adobe, Quark, and Microsoft it should be plainly obvious that "standard" has at least four separate contexts.
Perl, on the whole, is faster than AppleScript. AppleScript, on the whole, has a shorter learning time FOR A PROGRAMMER to be productive than Perl does. For a non-programmer, it's about the same.
Perl has no mechanism of "recording" or otherwise auto-generating scripts, at least that is widely publicized without a CPAN search.
Oh. Umm. Rant off.
-jeff
