September 2004
Intermediate to advanced
304 pages
9h 26m
English
Content preview from Modding Mac OS XBecome an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.
Final Thoughts
Application scripting can be both rewarding and frustrating for an aspiring application modder. On the one hand, there’s power—lots of it, with geekitude to spare. With the right script, you can make an application sit up and beg. On the other hand, there’s frustration—lots of it. Caffeine, chicken entrails, and chocolate may play little or no role in your results (or lack thereof). Here are a few final thoughts as you leave this chapter:
- Google is your friend.
Leverage the work that other people have already done by searching for scripts that might solve your problem.
- Always expect application scripting to take a lot longer than you think it should.
Regardless of how careful you are when building your scripts, you’re bound to go through a trial-and-error period to get your script to work exactly as you want it to.
- Scripting can cause stress.
Be prepared to yell loudly and make comments on the ancestry of the application developers whose product you’re attempting to control. While this doesn’t accomplish much, it sure beats banging your head on the desk.
- Trust your feelings, Luke.
When in doubt, script the interface instead of the application. UI Scripting is reliable, and with the right utilities, it’s relatively easy to do. It just takes some practice to get the hang of things.
- When all else fails…
If AppleScript just isn’t your thing, consider using a third-party macro package such as iKey or QuicKeys to automate your applications. They cost a little more, but they may get ...
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.
Read now
Unlock full access
More than 5,000 organizations count on O’Reilly
O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.