Apple’s Script

Daniel Jalkut looks at the rapid, significant progress Apple is making with JavaScript (w/r/t WebKit’s new SquirrelFish engine) and makes a good suggestion: that Apple replace AppleScript with JavaScript as the default system-wide application scripting language:

It sounds like I just said “Apple should kill AppleScript,” but I didn’t. You see, the Open Scripting Architecture, on which AppleScript runs, is designed from the start to support multiple languages. Think of the “Open Scripting” part of the system as the part that lets a script tell another application to do something. The specific scripting language you use to accomplish the rest is really of no concern whatsoever. Two languages, such as JavaScript and AppleScript, can easily live side by side.

I agree with this wholeheartedly. Or maybe even make a clean break and scrap OSA and introduce a new system.

★ Tuesday, 3 June 2008