AppleScript- A Short Report for a Very Long Book

I must admit that, at first glance, “AppleScript 1-2-3” by Sal Soghoian and Bill Cheeseman was a daunting experience. In today’s world, a printed volume that weighs nearly four pounds, and has 880 pages can be an unusual and intimidating document.

Yet, upon sitting down with the book and my MAC along side, and going through the numerous examples of the first chapter, I realized that, “Hey! This book is READABLE!”

Now, I won’t pretend that I’ve read the rest of the book in any great detail, but from what I’ve gleaned so far, the authors continue their hands-on, example-driven approach throughout- making the learning of AppleScript a very doable undertaking.

To those who are unfamiliar with AppleScript, let’s just say that it is an unbelievably powerful object-oriented language, built into every MAC from the beginning. It allows the user to manipulate the MAC applications in ways which add tremendous utility to the original programs.

For instance, my project involves taking a “whole boatload” of very old Microsoft Word files for MAC, and converting them into files that can be read by a modern WINDOWS PC- a daunting task if it were not for the MACRO capabilities of AppleScript.

AppleScript uses high-level, English language sentence structure and compiles it into a program that the machine understands. A built-in AppleScript Editor makes programming easy. An example of a command might be:

tell application “Finder” to open the startup disk

Nothing very cryptic there…

If you need your computer to do something different, or something not originally designed into a “Standard” application, you may want to give AppleScript a try. The book has a list price of $49.99. If you want to see if AppleScript is right for you before you make a commitment, look for a copy at your local public library.

Published by Peachpit Press
Copyright 2009
ISBN13:978-0-321-14931-2
ISBN-10:6-321-14931-9
mm
Ron K

IDF and the new Mac notebooks

ZDnet news provides this information:

The Intel Developer Forum makes it clear what Apple’s new notebooks - which I (Robin Harris) predict will be announced Tuesday, September 16 - will offer. Will it be worth the wait? If longer battery life and higher performance are important to you - yes.

And if you weren’t waiting? The new designs and features may make you rethink your allegiance to Windows - as so many already have.

IDF tells us a lot
So what’s coming? Here’s what the Storage Bits crystal ball reveals:
* Quad cores.
* Switchable graphics.
* WiMax.
* Solid-state disks.
* Larger memory capacity.
* RGB LED backlight.
* No internal optical drives.
* Blu-ray support.
* 64 bit hardware -
* A glass trackpad the size of …
* Pervasive power management.

But what will they look like?

Apple has lots of other technology that it can incorporate to create a real geewhiz experience. No one in the industry does it better. Whatever they do there will be some hits and some misses but the image of their design leadership will continue.

The Storage Bits take….

Apple’s notebook team has been working on these products for years. Their tight HW and SW integration coupled with Microsoft’s long development cycles means that Apple will be well positioned to take market share.
Click here for the complete article: http://blogs.zdnet.com/storage/?p=352

Read - Watch -Do sequence for learning

Adobe Photoshop CS One-on-One (CD-ROM included)
By McClelland, Deke
Copyright: 2007
ISBN: 978-0-596-52975-8 490 pages, $49.95 US, $64.99 CA,
Company/Producer’s name: Deke Press/O’Reilley
Phone #: 800-998-9938 Online address: www.oreily.com

Deke created this book for both amateur and professional graphic artists, designers, and photographers. It is another in a series of books that provide step-by-step lessons accompanied by beautiful full colored lessons combined with video lessons and data files. The author’s approach is a “hands on –step-by-step process" that allows the reader to proceed at their own pace and establish their own sequence of lessons to personalize the instruction.
The book’s content is divided into 12 lessons that include several (up to 3-7) step-by-step exercises to explain the techniques. Explanations, data files, and video lessons support these real world project based exercises.
The book is highly visual, colorful, informative, easy on the eye providing nicely laid out pages on heavy clay based paper, and a comprehensive index to support the text.

Lastly, the wonders of the digital age have provided us with the possibilities of a virtual classroom in which anyone can invite an expert in the field to tutor them one-on-one. I would like to say that Deke McClelland has created a comprehensive training experience into which you can submerge yourself for hours at a time. In process of reading this book you'll get a good dose of graphics theory, best practices, and tips for avoiding Photoshop disasters. L. McNeil