AppleScript in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference

This book is more like an expansion of the Apple downloadable resources for Applescript. It covers most everything regarding Finder scripting, and has some examples. I feel that the actual script examples in the book need more of the surrounding script for better context, but overall you can get the idea. This is more of a desk reference for me, since I can't fathom trying to read it straight through unless I've had waaaaay too much caffiene. Of all of the Applescript publications, this is the closest there is to a reference book, but it will not teach you to program in Applescript per se.

I use this book mostly for reference. There are a number of examples throughout the book, but you probably won't find any that are specific to the problem you are trying to solve. I recommend this book to be used in conjunction with the numerous resources on the web. This book becomes invaluable once you have some AppleScript experience under you belt.

We've selected this book as one of our "2001 BEST BOOKS" because it's clear content is perfect for both seasoned Applescripters and the beginner just getting started. It did the best job answering reader's questions about AppleScript -- and in some cases was the ONLY book on our bookshelf to give concise answers within a page.... Five Stars for this one! A Design Bookshelf "BEST" selection for 2001.

After a weekend with "the book", I can say that this one is a real winner. I'm very happy with the detail and the way it was intelligently sectioned out. The writing is clean with no excessive story telling and nothing extraneous to read - it was obviously edited by real pros.An example in the section on "Application Switcher" the author outlines the "cycling keystroke" class as follows. "cycling keystroke(keystroke object) You can set the keyboard combination for cycling through open programs (each program will become the highlighted program on the desktop in sequence as you press this key combo). This example changes this cycling keystroke to Control-F1:tell application "Application Switcher" set stroke to {key:F1 key, modifiers: {control down}} set cycling keystroke to stroke end tellThe keystroke object takes the form of a record type..." and it goes on in more detail. Then it tells you a little later what would be valid keystrokes to use.This is merely one example. The breadth of material is somewhat narrow, however it goes into great detail about all universal Applescript functionality. It's not specialized to one program's library, but extensively covers the details of Data Types, Operators, Reference Forms, Variables and Constants, Flow Control statements, and Subroutines.This book will help take you to the next level of AppleScripting. I'd recommend it to anyone interested in AS, though. If I'd had this a couple of years ago, I could have had much tighter and reliable code now. I'm really looking forward to reading this one several times over the years. I think we have a new AS reference for the pros, folks. IMO, of course.