AppleScript: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition

Chapter 2. Where to Use AppleScript

AppleScript, because it is implemented at system level, is omnipresent. Nevertheless, you do not use AppleScript at just any time and any place. AppleScript, like Archimedes' lever, may permit you to move the earth; but first, like Archimedes, you need a place to stand.

The various contexts and milieus in which AppleScript code can be executed may be conveniently grouped into a few general categories; this chapter presents these categories, along with some examples. In other words, this chapter describes the main places where you can use AppleScript. You'll discover that AppleScript is lurking, ready and at your command, in many corners of your computer.

The taxonomy presented here is somewhat artificial, and my names for the various kinds of context in which AppleScript can be used are mostly made up, but I don't think this makes the discussion any less useful. Bear in mind that the example scripts in this chapter are for the most part deliberately simple and contrived; the emphasis here is not on actual uses for AppleScript (as described in Chapter 1), but on places from which you can put it to use.

Script Editor

A script editor is an application such as Apple's own Script Editor (located in /Applications/AppleScript)—a general development environment where the user can create, edit, test, and run AppleScript code. A script editor application will almost certainly be central to your experience of AppleScript. Although you may use AppleScript code ...