Inspirational Technology

Why is Applescript so hard

Applescript is a strange language. It is easily one of the most readable programming languages I've ever seen. Yet, no matter how many Applescripts I read, every time I go to write one I run smack into a wall of befuddlement. I've used a couple different books on it and I guess it's just the complete lack of documentation that exists for the actual application implementations that is so problematic.

It seems app developers are intent on relying on the scripting dictionary for documentation along with maybe a couple sample scripts. This is just not adequate. I'm constantly amazed at what's possible with Applescript and even more amazed that the people who write these scripts were actually able to figure out how to do it. This is especially frustrating to me as I know dozens of programming languages and have used 10-12 different languages professionally, but writing Applescript is just befuddling.

It's like the complete opposite of Perl. With Perl once you learn the language programs kind of just flow out of your mind and into the computer in a very expressive fashion. However, reading Perl code, especially code written by people who take pride in using all the Perl shortcuts, can be a quite painful experience. Applescript is the opposite, reading the code is always easy. I've yet to see a script that I couldn't understand. Writing it though. Ugh, why is it so hard? It just doesn't make any sense.

Obviously, I've been doing a lot of work with Applescript or rather more in using Applescript with Cocoa applications. I'm excited by the capabilities, but frustrated with how difficult it is anytime I have to step into the Applescript domain and write a script from scratch. It's still fun though.