Learn AppleScript

I started using AppleScript back when one could easily record actions and then tweak them. I had one going off at every startup to set up my desktop and other items just right. Nowadays I mostly want to manage my iTunes music, I have over 2 dozen scripts that do all kinds of neat things (like add/delete half-star ratings!) but I want to write some more for album management. And I also need to write some for automated folders, auto-sub-sorting and the like. But I enjoy it a lot.

I am now using a MacbookPro and am not used to being lost on my laptop. This seems a way I can gain control without going back to running windows.

If everything is a priority, then nothing is a priority.

There is no reason for me to get to this one until I understand and use DevonThink.

If I free up this slot, I can add some more short term goals.

1.) Books about Apple Script.
2.) Projects to do.
3.) X-Code
4.) Time….

As is usually the case, it took some external forces to instigate the motivation to learn AppleScript, but once the motivation was there the language was really easy to grasp. The big rumor about AppleScript is that “it’s easy because it’s exactly like English.” Unfortuantely, that’s not entirely true. AppleScript is just like any other programming language and it has its own set of rules for grammar and syntax which you need to know in order to get a script working. The good news, however, is that once you understand the basics you can start typing out full lines of English-only words instead of punctuation marks like parenthesis and periods and curly braces, and you’ll actually be writing real, working code.

What’s even nicer about AppleScript is that there’s no worry about formatting or style, because the compiler forces extremely stringent restrictions on the syntax of your code the moment you’re done typing. This is good because it means (if you’ll allow me to simplify things for a moment) there aren’t twenty different ways of saying the same thing; once you type what you mean, the compiler changes it just enough to match the standard AppleScript idiom. This is especially helpful when you’re looking through other people’s code.

The single most important resource I’ve been using in my quest to master AppleScript has been Matt Neuburg’s fantastic book, AppleScript: The Definitive Guide, Second Edition from O’Reilly Publications. Rather than focus on the syntax and grammar up-front (which, honestly, is the easy part of every language) it goes into detail about the technology of AppleScript and how it works in Mac OS X. This is of great benefit to understand while you’re learning the nuts and bolts of the syntax because you’ll be more able to debug your code even if you see errors you don’t understand because you will understand how things are supposed to work.

And of course, once you’ve figured out how to do something in AppleScript, you begin to grasp the nearly infinite ability your Mac has to work for you, instead of the other way around.

Does anyone know any good tutorials online that could teach me? Preferably text, not video.

It isn’t for my job and if it isn’t for my job, I want to do something not on the computer (except for 43T… and paying my bills… and ordering/buying music… hmmm).

But not programming. I have enough of that all day.

I updated my script that handles recently downloaded podcasts in iTunes tonight. I learned a bit about using lists to handle my comparisons instead of using a bunch of if statements.

start small.

read short scripts done by others.

buy a good reference like “Applescript – The Definitive Guide”.

Get the Applescript Language Guide PDF from Apple.com and PRINT IT OUT.

iTunes is a good program to start with, it’s very scriptable and is there are a lot of info online. Try http://www.dougscripts.com/itunes/index.php

Oh yea! I know I sound way too excited, but I wrote a couple of scripts tonight to make my life a little easier in iTunes on the Mac. They were very small scripts to set the EQ to “Spoken Word” for selected podcasts and another script to set the Genre to “Tech Podcast” for items that I want to be put into a specific Smart Playlist.