AppleScript: The Definitive Guide: Scripting and Automating Your Mac

The most important thing you need to know before buying this book is some AppleScript. If you are looking for a book to teach you AS from the ground up, this is not it. What you most likely need for that is  Apple Training Series: AppleScript 1-2-3 .However, if you've already used Soghoian and Cheeseman, or  Learn AppleScript: The Comprehensive Guide to Scripting and Automation on Mac OS X (Learn (Apress)) , then this most definitely is the book for you.This is the book that will make the difference between you as a scripter who knows their way around but keeps getting stuck and looking things up on the internet and you as a scripter who can figure out stuff for themselves and help others who get stuck.I'd been AppleScripting for months under the illusion that I knew my way around (even though I kept getting stymied trying to do anything new). The feeling you get when you actually write a script straight out of your head to solve a novel problem AND it compiles first time...ooohh!!! Scripter joy!! This book will help you get there, but like I said, if you're a beginner: look elsewhere first. This will only put you off.

Matt Neuburg's AppleScript book is an excellent overview of AppleScript. Alas, it is limited, as all such books are, by AppleScript's peculiar nature.The problem is that AppleScript is primarily useful when it interacts with scriptable Applications; this means that many important commands one may think of as belonging to AppleScript belong to Applications instead [2]. If you working to extend an existing script, and decide to research a command in the excellent book index Matt built himself [1], you'll often be frustrated. The command, you see, belongs to the Application, not to AppleScript.On the other hand, there's a good chance Matt used in the command in one or more examples. In the absence of a companion book entitled "AppleScript for Applications" [3] you'd like to find those examples. Alas, that's where you want a full text search engine.The good news is, there are two. The even better news is that O'Reilly could make their engine much more visible and useful, with advantages for everyone.Consider the case of the 'Duplicate' command, which is supported by iTunes (among others) and the Finder (in slightly different ways, no doubt). When I tried Amazon's "search within the book" I discovered several illuminating references. Similarly, O'Reilly allows one to search within the book as a promotion for its Safari eBook library.The Safari search works well, but they don't want to give away too much for free. You can only read a snippet of information in the search results. A snippet that doesn't, currently, include the page or section number. If you click further you get to the 'buy safari' screen, but you also get to see the section number. Now, you can return to the book and read the information.O'Reilly could make all of us (and themselves) happy by keeping Safari just as closed as it is today, but merely adding a section reference to the search results they freely expose already.Here's the win-win for O'Reilly, Matt, Amazon and us:1. Include the section reference in the initial search results screen.2. Promote the search facility in every published O'Reilly book and explain how to use it on the O'Reilly book page.3. If need be, request readers register to obtain this service. O'Reilly doesn't do spam, but they can suggest email subscriptions, RSS feeds, etc during the registration process.Let us count the wins:1. Matt's book is suddenly a better book. Readers get more value from it. They use it more. They like it and O'Reilly more.2. O'Reilly gets ongoing visits from its customers.3. O'Reilly gets free, regular, promotion of Safari services.4. Amazon sells more books.5. O'Reilly does not reduce the value of Safari, they enhance it by introducing users to it without giving it away.It's a win-win for everyone. I just hope someone at O'Reilly can see the profit in it for them.john[1] In my real life I'm a knowledge representation/informatics geek. I have a lot of respect for the unrecognized intellectual labor that goes into producing a truly excellent index. In this case Matt did the work himself![2] Many applications may use the same string to refer to somewhat similar functions with slightly different syntax and semantics. This "ontologic dilemma" is a kind of uncontrolled overloading, and it makes AppleScript very challenging to use.[3] If Matt decides to sell an "AppleScript for Applications" as a Tidbits eBook I'll pay for mine in advance!

This book is certainly the definitive text for really learning how to write AppleScripts. It is not easy, and it does not have a gentle intro that leads you into the language. The text assumes (perhaps more implicitly) that the reader knows something about a variety of other programming languages (PERL, Lisp come to mind). I will seek a more gentle into as I am starting at ground zero with AppleScript, but this will be my "go to" reference for subtle variations of the language. If you really want to leran AppleScript well and be able to write sophisticated code, this text is a must for your bookshelf.

Matt Neuburg has written a great text. It's easy to read and understand, and it's great a for a thorough understanding of the language. The first section of the book doesn't discuss code very much; moreso the practical application for the language in a real-world environment. The second section delves right into code, giving practical examples and helpful tips. After reading the first two chapters of the second section, I was writing simple programs to control applications. Great book for a beginning AppleScript programmer; even better book for a person completely new to programming.

Dry. Very difficult to understand many of the author's ideas and concepts. However he does use many examples throughout the book. With Apple's many changes in the last ten years since the book was written, this book needs serious updating.

As other zoo books, this is a detailed, book, maybe not for a beginner programmer, but a someone familiar with other types of scripting. To those who have used zoo books (The books all have a different animal on them), it is written in the familiar detailed style. Apple script is extremely powerful, just like windows scripting but with a better operating system (Opinion).

Great book, and just the perfect resource for me.Although I have not read through it cover to cover, it is the perfect resource for me to have as reference for those instances where I need it. Though I wish a newer edition would be written though.

Still worth reading even though You May think AppleScript is redundant: it is not. Even though these days you have a choice of alternatives, there are some things which are still most efficiently achieved with AppleScript. Most importantly, you will enjoy having this particular author reveal to you the elegant Apple Events model behind this quirky (actually not-so-quirky) language. “Technical” writing at its very best.

Jamais vu un livre aussi mal écrit. Aucune structure ou direction.

Wenn Sie MacOS-Applications scripten wollen, dann müssen Sie scripten = Fehler machen (AppleScript ist keine sehr entgegenkommende Sprache) und nach Lösungen suchen. Und hier hilft die Theorie im Matt Neuburgs Buch - wahrscheinlich wie kein anderes. Es greift auch wie kein anderes seeeeehr tief in den Stoff hinein. Und ist sehr interessant geschrieben, spannend.Ich empfehle als Zusatzmaterial die AppleScript Language Guide und unbedingt das Buch von Hanaan Rosenthal.AppleScript scheint obsolet zu werden. Die neue MacOS-Parole - Swift.Wohlan!