I've used AppleScript and Automator many times over the years - setting up watched folders and actions, etc. AS and A have been problematic from the start. A very narrow range of tech heads have been able to do a lot with scripting on the Mac but I doubt they represent more than one out of five thousand Mac users.
The AS / A thing is far too ungainly to attract the masses. Most everyday people who have tried it out have been totally stumped by it - "here's a list of selectable terms, here's a window where you're supposed to do something, have fun". The interface was not vetted by normal people and it turned normal people away. I was motivated, so I figured it out and used it for many things, most of which were not particularly high level.
It is like a master mathematician trying to teach math to an elementary school kid. 90% of the kids are left behind. Just because someone is a master of something, this doesn't mean that they have one iota of teaching skills or that they understand how kids learn and interact with things.
While other factors are clearly at play, AS / A has been a victim of Apple-itis: it was created to appeal to the creators. It's like when Apple rewrote iMovie to suit video pros; removing a powerful but drop-dead-easy interface that amateurs flocked to in the millions and replacing it with a screen filled from top to bottom with a dizzying array of frames. It was great for a certain group, but it drove millions away – the millions of amateurs that it was specifically designed to serve. As it is now, people use it if they are really intent on using it. The percentage of normal people creating movies with it is nowhere near the percentage before the interface rewrite.
The scripting interface is far too mysterious for mere mortals. I'm not surprised that Apple eliminated the post. As for me, I'm annoyed that this issue was not addressed properly and did not offer a leg-up to normal everyday people.
I suspect that Apple will do maintenance on AS / A for a few years, but not add any new features. As you said they should make a public statement about it. Hopefully they will continue to include hooks into Apple OSes and Apps that support scripting.
I'd be willing to bet that Apple will consolidate its scripting efforts with a Swift front end. Swift playgrounds is a start -- but it is too programmer oriented, IMO.
Here's what I suggest:
A Swift scripting interface with a higher level of Abstraction
A Siri implementation of the above
1) Instead of:
include Foundation
include MapKit
...
let regionRadius: CLLocationDistance = 1000 func centerMapOnLocation(location: CLLocation) { let coordinateRegion = MKCoordinateRegionMakeWithDistance(location.coordinate, regionRadius * 2.0, regionRadius * 2.0) mapView.setRegion(coordinateRegion, animated: true) }
...
Something like:
show a 3D map of the Eiffel Tower create a video of flying down to the Louvre ... save my3DMapVideo start tofinish
2) When satisfied with the app
Hey Siri "run my3DMapVideo from St. Peters to the Colosseum"
Wow...what a lot of Chicken Little drama junkie puppies. The article is about the management post, not the elimination of Automator, AppleScript etc
If Apple had a better track record supporting its professional users recently, then your head in the clouds attitude might be warranted. Also the lack of transparency in regards to Apple's plans for its professional technologies helps fuel negative speculation. And those of us who have been around awhile know that Applescript has seemingly always been under threat of removal. Your speculation that Apple may have some other plan in the works is just that, speculation. It is similar to the speculation that Apple must have been making a REALLY awesome update to Aperture because it hadn't been updated in so long. And the replacement for Aperture, an upgraded iPhoto that takes plug-ins, was a sorry substitute for Aperture. So if Apple handles "upgrades" to its automation tools in a similar way to how it handled Aperture, then we are all in for a big disappointment. But this all gets back to how Apple needs to be more transparent with its professional software development roadmaps. I understand their need to keep secret the next big thing for iPad or whatever. But I do not see any value in Apple keeping its professional users in the dark about the future of Applescript and Automator. Just tell us where you are going with these things and stop the negative rumors.
I agree to some extent. But, Apple has been pretty clear that they consider Swift to be a System Programming Language -- not just apps, but Shell scripts, OAS Scripts and, likely, Web scripts.
Exactly, this the realm of Swift from now. And "professionals" have never used AppleScript because it is indeed unusable. OS X had a Scripts menu. What is the percentage of users who used the scripts in that menu or added their own scripts to that menu? The majority didn't even notice that it has now gone...
AppleScript was a product of the classic Mac OS. Inspired from the success of HyperTalk language in HyperCard, the loose-leaf information storage and retrieval program based on the card metaphor, it was striving to bring natural language programming to the rest of us.
And it did! We have JavaScript which is pretty much HyperTalk, and HTML as inspired by HyperCard. The push from Apple for allowing "the rest of us" to develop did make non-programmers contribute. Today Apple should retire AppleScript and move to JavaScript instead.
What worries me is that the group responsible for the terminal is being dissolved. Open access to UNIX tools is important to scientists, developers, and other Pro users. The hardware is glued and closed like never before but the system has to stay open. Otherwise OS X will be a walled garden like iOS. I do hope Apple will be open about the direction for OS X and the platform.
Wow...what a lot of Chicken Little drama junkie puppies. The article is about the management post, not the elimination of Automator, AppleScript etc
If Apple had a better track record supporting its professional users recently, then your head in the clouds attitude might be warranted. Also the lack of transparency in regards to Apple's plans for its professional technologies helps fuel negative speculation. And those of us who have been around awhile know that Applescript has seemingly always been under threat of removal. Your speculation that Apple may have some other plan in the works is just that, speculation. It is similar to the speculation that Apple must have been making a REALLY awesome update to Aperture because it hadn't been updated in so long. And the replacement for Aperture, an upgraded iPhoto that takes plug-ins, was a sorry substitute for Aperture. So if Apple handles "upgrades" to its automation tools in a similar way to how it handled Aperture, then we are all in for a big disappointment. But this all gets back to how Apple needs to be more transparent with its professional software development roadmaps. I understand their need to keep secret the next big thing for iPad or whatever. But I do not see any value in Apple keeping its professional users in the dark about the future of Applescript and Automator. Just tell us where you are going with these things and stop the negative rumors.
I agree to some extent. But, Apple has been pretty clear that they consider Swift to be a System Programming Language -- not just apps, but Shell scripts, OAS Scripts and, likely, Web scripts.
That may be true, but it would have a long way to go to be an application-level scripting language that can do what Applescript can do today in regards to controlling both the system and other apps. I'm under no illusions that Applescript is a great solution. It is deeply flawed in many ways. But the real point is that we just don't know what Apple's plans are. Based on Apple's behavior over the past 10 years I think it is more likely that they will EOL Applescript without warning, claim some half-baked thing is the replacement, and move on without caring one iota. I don't like sounding so pessimistic about Apple, which I normally defend, and I would love Apple to prove me wrong for all sorts of professional and personal reasons.
I've used AppleScript and Automator many times over the years - setting up watched folders and actions, etc. AS and A have been problematic from the start. A very narrow range of tech heads have been able to do a lot with scripting on the Mac but I doubt they represent more than one out of five thousand Mac users.
The AS / A thing is far too ungainly to attract the masses. Most everyday people who have tried it out have been totally stumped by it - "here's a list of selectable terms, here's a window where you're supposed to do something, have fun". The interface was not vetted by normal people and it turned normal people away. I was motivated, so I figured it out and used it for many things, most of which were not particularly high level.
It is like a master mathematician trying to teach math to an elementary school kid. 90% of the kids are left behind. Just because someone is a master of something, this doesn't mean that they have one iota of teaching skills or that they understand how kids learn and interact with things.
While other factors are clearly at play, AS / A has been a victim of Apple-itis: it was created to appeal to the creators. It's like when Apple rewrote iMovie to suit video pros; removing a powerful but drop-dead-easy interface that amateurs flocked to in the millions and replacing it with a screen filled from top to bottom with a dizzying array of frames. It was great for a certain group, but it drove millions away – the millions of amateurs that it was specifically designed to serve. As it is now, people use it if they are really intent on using it. The percentage of normal people creating movies with it is nowhere near the percentage before the interface rewrite.
The scripting interface is far too mysterious for mere mortals. I'm not surprised that Apple eliminated the post. As for me, I'm annoyed that this issue was not addressed properly and did not offer a leg-up to normal everyday people.
I suspect that Apple will do maintenance on AS / A for a few years, but not add any new features. As you said they should make a public statement about it. Hopefully they will continue to include hooks into Apple OSes and Apps that support scripting.
I'd be willing to bet that Apple will consolidate its scripting efforts with a Swift front end. Swift playgrounds is a start -- but it is too programmer oriented, IMO.
Here's what I suggest:
A Swift scripting interface with a higher level of Abstraction
A Siri implementation of the above
1) Instead of:
include Foundation
include MapKit
...
let regionRadius: CLLocationDistance = 1000 func centerMapOnLocation(location: CLLocation) { let coordinateRegion = MKCoordinateRegionMakeWithDistance(location.coordinate, regionRadius * 2.0, regionRadius * 2.0) mapView.setRegion(coordinateRegion, animated: true) }
...
Something like:
show a 3D map of the Eiffel Tower create a video of flying down to the Louvre ... save my3DMapVideo start tofinish
2) When satisfied with the app
Hey Siri "run my3DMapVideo from St. Peters to the Colosseum"
"1) Instead of:" is the correct way to do it, "Something like" is to repeat the same mistake with AppleScript.
You can always achieve that higher level of abstraction by re-writing your APIs in a higher level of abstraction, that doesn't require necessarily a new scripting interface or language. The user who can master your example in "Something like:" can also master show3DMap(Eiffel Tower) videoFlyDown(from: Eiffel Tower, to: Louvre)
Thinking in functions and arguments (and as a plus understanding that arguments may have distinct types and functions may return values of different types) is indispensable to any kind of programming. When that mode of thinking is removed or not enforced, there is no way to do programming. This is exactly why AppleScript is unusable.
AppleScript was a product of the classic Mac OS. Inspired from the success of HyperTalk language in HyperCard, the loose-leaf information storage and retrieval program based on the card metaphor, it was striving to bring natural language programming to the rest of us.
And it did! We have JavaScript which is pretty much HyperTalk, and HTML as inspired by HyperCard.
nubus said: The push from Apple for allowing "the rest of us" to develop did make non-programmers contribute. Today Apple should retire AppleScript and move to JavaScript instead.
JavaScript has several disadvantages -- language inconsistencies, insecure, slow -- Swift is a much better choice.
What worries me is that the group responsible for the terminal is being dissolved. Open access to UNIX tools is important to scientists, developers, and other Pro users. The hardware is glued and closed like never before but the system has to stay open. Otherwise OS X will be a walled garden like iOS. I do hope Apple will be open about the direction for OS X and the platform.
AppleScript was a product of the classic Mac OS. Inspired from the success of HyperTalk language in HyperCard, the loose-leaf information storage and retrieval program based on the card metaphor, it was striving to bring natural language programming to the rest of us.
And it did! We have JavaScript which is pretty much HyperTalk, and HTML as inspired by HyperCard. The push from Apple for allowing "the rest of us" to develop did make non-programmers contribute. Today Apple should retire AppleScript and move to JavaScript instead.
What worries me is that the group responsible for the terminal is being dissolved. Open access to UNIX tools is important to scientists, developers, and other Pro users. The hardware is glued and closed like never before but the system has to stay open. Otherwise OS X will be a walled garden like iOS. I do hope Apple will be open about the direction for OS X and the platform.
Apple is bound by UNIX licensing agreements, they cannot deliberately drop the Terminal utility.
HTML is not a descendant of or inspired by HyperCard. It is a descendant of SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language). The hypertext idea belongs to Ted Nelson and HyperCard is inspired from that idea.
Very sad news. Another nail in the coffin for the original Mac philosophy.
AppleScript has nothing to do with the original Mac philosophy. AppleScript belongs to a later decade, to that age of "multimedia" preceeding the public Internet and the Web and it makes part of those futile efforts to go "corporate" like OpenDoc, PlainTalk and many other forgotten discontinued projects.
But I see that you're very capable in building negative stories based on what others write as if those were your own experiences...
AppleScript was designed to automate tasks using a human like language in an attempt to make automation more accessible to a wider public.
Apple, with the Mac had similar human like metaphors in mind and developed them further.
That philosophy stretched into the following decades and encompassed the multimedia period too.
Someone here recently linked to the article on how Apple is killing design and I subscribe to that way of thinking.
When Apple stopped following its own interface guidelines it was clear that something had changed for the worse.
I've used AppleScript and Automator many times over the years - setting up watched folders and actions, etc. AS and A have been problematic from the start. A very narrow range of tech heads have been able to do a lot with scripting on the Mac but I doubt they represent more than one out of five thousand Mac users.
The AS / A thing is far too ungainly to attract the masses. Most everyday people who have tried it out have been totally stumped by it - "here's a list of selectable terms, here's a window where you're supposed to do something, have fun". The interface was not vetted by normal people and it turned normal people away. I was motivated, so I figured it out and used it for many things, most of which were not particularly high level.
It is like a master mathematician trying to teach math to an elementary school kid. 90% of the kids are left behind. Just because someone is a master of something, this doesn't mean that they have one iota of teaching skills or that they understand how kids learn and interact with things.
While other factors are clearly at play, AS / A has been a victim of Apple-itis: it was created to appeal to the creators. It's like when Apple rewrote iMovie to suit video pros; removing a powerful but drop-dead-easy interface that amateurs flocked to in the millions and replacing it with a screen filled from top to bottom with a dizzying array of frames. It was great for a certain group, but it drove millions away – the millions of amateurs that it was specifically designed to serve. As it is now, people use it if they are really intent on using it. The percentage of normal people creating movies with it is nowhere near the percentage before the interface rewrite.
The scripting interface is far too mysterious for mere mortals. I'm not surprised that Apple eliminated the post. As for me, I'm annoyed that this issue was not addressed properly and did not offer a leg-up to normal everyday people.
I suspect that Apple will do maintenance on AS / A for a few years, but not add any new features. As you said they should make a public statement about it. Hopefully they will continue to include hooks into Apple OSes and Apps that support scripting.
I'd be willing to bet that Apple will consolidate its scripting efforts with a Swift front end. Swift playgrounds is a start -- but it is too programmer oriented, IMO.
Here's what I suggest:
A Swift scripting interface with a higher level of Abstraction
A Siri implementation of the above
1) Instead of:
include Foundation
include MapKit
...
let regionRadius: CLLocationDistance = 1000 func centerMapOnLocation(location: CLLocation) { let coordinateRegion = MKCoordinateRegionMakeWithDistance(location.coordinate, regionRadius * 2.0, regionRadius * 2.0) mapView.setRegion(coordinateRegion, animated: true) }
...
Something like:
show a 3D map of the Eiffel Tower create a video of flying down to the Louvre ... save my3DMapVideo start tofinish
2) When satisfied with the app
Hey Siri "run my3DMapVideo from St. Peters to the Colosseum"
"1) Insted of:" is the correct way to do it, "Something like" is to repeat the same mistake with AppleScript.
You can always achieve that higher level of abstraction by re-writing your APIs in a higher level of abstraction, that doesn't require necessarily a new scripting interface or language. The user who can master your example in "Something like:" can also master show3DMap(Eiffel Tower) videoFlyDown(from: Eiffel Tower, to: Louvre)
Thinking in functions and arguments (and as a plus understanding that arguments may have distinct types and functions may return values of different types) is indispensable to any kind of programming. When that mode of thinking is removed or not enforced, there is no way to do programming. This is exactly why AppleScript is unusable.
Mmm...
I haven't used AppleScript much and that was years ago. With every new macOS release I look at the Maps dictionary to see if there is a way to do the above 3D Flyby -- It may be possible but I'm not up to the effort!
As to your larger point about abstraction. You are correct! It is interesting that Swift Playgrounds for iPad uses the Command approach similar to:
show3DMap(Eiffel Tower)
videoFlyDown(from: Eiffel Tower, to: Louvre)
Where the above are Commands and the complexity of functions, arguments, types, error checking, APIs, are revealed when and if necessary.
AppleScript was a product of the classic Mac OS. Inspired from the success of HyperTalk language in HyperCard, the loose-leaf information storage and retrieval program based on the card metaphor, it was striving to bring natural language programming to the rest of us.
The idea was wrong, obviously, because,"natural language" and programming don't go together. Programming is "unnatural", requires a high level of abstraction not found in the natural language and cannot tolerate the looseness and fuzzy logic inherent to the natural language. Trying to "naturalize" programming resulted in a scripting system extremely complicated and difficult to use. Many of the natural language scripts wouldn't work because of the strong typing inherent to the language causing an avalanche of errors. So, the efforts to implement a system-wide scripting language was already born dead.
The mini scripting language of Filemaker Pro is the closest one to "programming for the rest of us". Scripts are built by point and click method, the system controls every step of script building process thus prevents the user from making mistakes. Automator is built upon this approach and is the first successful attempt to build a system wide scripting system. So, AppleScript may be dead but I don't think Apple will let Automator die, because it works.
The dissolution of the post doesn't imply that "automation technologies are no longer a priority at Apple". Maybe the post itself was an obstacle to the development of these technologies?
You got more right in this comment than any others yet in this thread. The most important aspect is that you cant read anything into this as farcas Apple and automation going forward.
AppleScript is ancient and automator is clunky. But they're better than nothing.
If Apple's plan here is to replace the functionality of these tools with something better (perhaps swift-based), then that's probably a good thing.
If Apple's plan is to drop support for automation/scripting entirely (leaving it to third parties), then that's a bad thing.
Given all the resources poured into development of Swift, I would hope they have some good plans here. But these are strange times, and nothing can be taken for granted.
AppleScript is ancient and automator is clunky. But they're better than nothing.
If Apple's plan here is to replace the functionality of these tools with something better (perhaps swift-based), then that's probably a good thing.
If Apple's plan is to drop support for automation/scripting entirely (leaving it to third parties), then that's a bad thing.
Given all the resources poured into development of Swift, I would hope they have some good plans here. But these are strange times, and nothing can be taken for granted.
This is the new paradigm. Instead of rescuing users from "coding", Apple strives to make coding a deep trait of 21st century's educated humans.
I suspect people are getting worked up over nothing here. Ive never use Apple Script or Automator mainly because Python was a better fit. I do wish fir better Python support from Apple though.
Long term we have Swift and AI based technologies coming. These are a better solution moving forward than Apples ropy ever could be. An AI based system agent ought to be Apples long term goal for automation.
Apple has left a lot crap software behind, Applesript fits into that category.
I suspect people are getting worked up over nothing here. Ive never use Apple Script or Automator mainly because Python was a better fit. I do wish fir better Python support from Apple though.
Long term we have Swift and AI based technologies coming. These are a better solution moving forward than Apples ropy ever could be. An AI based system agent ought to be Apples long term goal for automation.
Apple has left a lot crap software behind, Applesript fits into that category.
That all makes a great deal of sense to me.
Well almost all.... I can understand why people are getting worked up. Apple's lack of communication is problematic. Secrecy is fine for many things, but when a tool that people depend on for their livelihoods is unceremoniously dumped without any word on why or how people's needs will be met in the future -- well, it's pretty understandable that people get upset.
AppleScript was a product of the classic Mac OS. Inspired from the success of HyperTalk language in HyperCard, the loose-leaf information storage and retrieval program based on the card metaphor, it was striving to bring natural language programming to the rest of us.
And it did! We have JavaScript which is pretty much HyperTalk, and HTML as inspired by HyperCard.
Not True!
Tim Berners-Lee said he was inspired by HyperCard when creating www. HTML is obviously inspired by SGML.
AppleScript was a product of the classic Mac OS. Inspired from the success of HyperTalk language in HyperCard, the loose-leaf information storage and retrieval program based on the card metaphor, it was striving to bring natural language programming to the rest of us.
And it did! We have JavaScript which is pretty much HyperTalk, and HTML as inspired by HyperCard. The push from Apple for allowing "the rest of us" to develop did make non-programmers contribute. Today Apple should retire AppleScript and move to JavaScript instead.
What worries me is that the group responsible for the terminal is being dissolved. Open access to UNIX tools is important to scientists, developers, and other Pro users. The hardware is glued and closed like never before but the system has to stay open. Otherwise OS X will be a walled garden like iOS. I do hope Apple will be open about the direction for OS X and the platform.
This is what worries me. I don't really care about AppleScript, but I don't want to lose Ruby, Python, shell scripting…
I'm glad to see so many negative comments about Applescript. As a programmer, I found Applescript so unintuitive that I spent little time trying to get even simple things to work -- just gave up. Not worth the time.
But, for a recent project, I have no choice but to minimally learn and use. Okay, after much time and effort, I got some serious work done. It was worth it only because I had no choice. Not something I would recommend to anyone.
Not said to see it go, but I have no faith in Apple creating anything of quality to replace it.
I've been using Apple since 2000, but I don't see anything valuable coming out of them now. Apple will be a shell of its former self a few years from now. They build hardware for entertainment now, not for work. I can entertain myself, thank you. What I want to do is good work.
Wow...what a lot of Chicken Little drama junkie puppies. The article is about the management post, not the elimination of Automator, AppleScript etc
If Apple had a better track record supporting its professional users recently, then your head in the clouds attitude might be warranted. Also the lack of transparency in regards to Apple's plans for its professional technologies helps fuel negative speculation. And those of us who have been around awhile know that Applescript has seemingly always been under threat of removal. Your speculation that Apple may have some other plan in the works is just that, speculation. It is similar to the speculation that Apple must have been making a REALLY awesome update to Aperture because it hadn't been updated in so long. And the replacement for Aperture, an upgraded iPhoto that takes plug-ins, was a sorry substitute for Aperture. So if Apple handles "upgrades" to its automation tools in a similar way to how it handled Aperture, then we are all in for a big disappointment. But this all gets back to how Apple needs to be more transparent with its professional software development roadmaps. I understand their need to keep secret the next big thing for iPad or whatever. But I do not see any value in Apple keeping its professional users in the dark about the future of Applescript and Automator. Just tell us where you are going with these things and stop the negative rumors.
I agree to some extent. But, Apple has been pretty clear that they consider Swift to be a System Programming Language -- not just apps, but Shell scripts, OAS Scripts and, likely, Web scripts.
your script could have been written in Objective C or C, or whatever. Swift doesnt add any new functionality.
AppleScript was a product of the classic Mac OS. Inspired from the success of HyperTalk language in HyperCard, the loose-leaf information storage and retrieval program based on the card metaphor, it was striving to bring natural language programming to the rest of us.
And it did! We have JavaScript which is pretty much HyperTalk, and HTML as inspired by HyperCard. The push from Apple for allowing "the rest of us" to develop did make non-programmers contribute. Today Apple should retire AppleScript and move to JavaScript instead.
What worries me is that the group responsible for the terminal is being dissolved. Open access to UNIX tools is important to scientists, developers, and other Pro users. The hardware is glued and closed like never before but the system has to stay open. Otherwise OS X will be a walled garden like iOS. I do hope Apple will be open about the direction for OS X and the platform.
This is what worries me. I don't really care about AppleScript, but I don't want to lose Ruby, Python, shell scripting…
No way is Terminal going away!
Just the opposite, Apple has enhanced Terminal by adding Swift, REPL (analogous to Playgrounds), LLDB... as shown below. You can even create an Xcode project from a Terminal script.
From an earlier post, here's a Bash Shell Script [created and run in an Xcode Playground] that builds and tests a Swift Package Manager, using Swift CLI commands:
Comments
I'd be willing to bet that Apple will consolidate its scripting efforts with a Swift front end. Swift playgrounds is a start -- but it is too programmer oriented, IMO.
Here's what I suggest:
1) Instead of:
Something like:
2) When satisfied with the app Hey Siri "run my3DMapVideo from St. Peters to the Colosseum"
What worries me is that the group responsible for the terminal is being dissolved. Open access to UNIX tools is important to scientists, developers, and other Pro users. The hardware is glued and closed like never before but the system has to stay open. Otherwise OS X will be a walled garden like iOS. I do hope Apple will be open about the direction for OS X and the platform.
That may be true, but it would have a long way to go to be an application-level scripting language that can do what Applescript can do today in regards to controlling both the system and other apps. I'm under no illusions that Applescript is a great solution. It is deeply flawed in many ways. But the real point is that we just don't know what Apple's plans are. Based on Apple's behavior over the past 10 years I think it is more likely that they will EOL Applescript without warning, claim some half-baked thing is the replacement, and move on without caring one iota. I don't like sounding so pessimistic about Apple, which I normally defend, and I would love Apple to prove me wrong for all sorts of professional and personal reasons.
You can always achieve that higher level of abstraction by re-writing your APIs in a higher level of abstraction, that doesn't require necessarily a new scripting interface or language. The user who can master your example in "Something like:" can also master
show3DMap(Eiffel Tower)
videoFlyDown(from: Eiffel Tower, to: Louvre)
Thinking in functions and arguments (and as a plus understanding that arguments may have distinct types and functions may return values of different types) is indispensable to any kind of programming. When that mode of thinking is removed or not enforced, there is no way to do programming. This is exactly why AppleScript is unusable.
Not True!
JavaScript has several disadvantages -- language inconsistencies, insecure, slow -- Swift is a much better choice.
What worries me is that the group responsible for the terminal is being dissolved. Open access to UNIX tools is important to scientists, developers, and other Pro users. The hardware is glued and closed like never before but the system has to stay open. Otherwise OS X will be a walled garden like iOS. I do hope Apple will be open about the direction for OS X and the platform.
Do you have a citation for that?
HTML is not a descendant of or inspired by HyperCard. It is a descendant of SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language). The hypertext idea belongs to Ted Nelson and HyperCard is inspired from that idea.
Apple, with the Mac had similar human like metaphors in mind and developed them further.
That philosophy stretched into the following decades and encompassed the multimedia period too.
Someone here recently linked to the article on how Apple is killing design and I subscribe to that way of thinking.
When Apple stopped following its own interface guidelines it was clear that something had changed for the worse.
Mmm...
I haven't used AppleScript much and that was years ago. With every new macOS release I look at the Maps dictionary to see if there is a way to do the above 3D Flyby -- It may be possible but I'm not up to the effort!
As to your larger point about abstraction. You are correct! It is interesting that Swift Playgrounds for iPad uses the Command approach similar to:
Where the above are Commands and the complexity of functions, arguments, types, error checking, APIs, are revealed when and if necessary.
If Apple's plan here is to replace the functionality of these tools with something better (perhaps swift-based), then that's probably a good thing.
If Apple's plan is to drop support for automation/scripting entirely (leaving it to third parties), then that's a bad thing.
Given all the resources poured into development of Swift, I would hope they have some good plans here. But these are strange times, and nothing can be taken for granted.
http://www.apple.com/education/everyone-can-code/
Long term we have Swift and AI based technologies coming. These are a better solution moving forward than Apples ropy ever could be. An AI based system agent ought to be Apples long term goal for automation.
Apple has left a lot crap software behind, Applesript fits into that category.
Well almost all.... I can understand why people are getting worked up. Apple's lack of communication is problematic. Secrecy is fine for many things, but when a tool that people depend on for their livelihoods is unceremoniously dumped without any word on why or how people's needs will be met in the future -- well, it's pretty understandable that people get upset.
But, for a recent project, I have no choice but to minimally learn and use. Okay, after much time and effort, I got some serious work done. It was worth it only because I had no choice. Not something I would recommend to anyone.
Not said to see it go, but I have no faith in Apple creating anything of quality to replace it.
I've been using Apple since 2000, but I don't see anything valuable coming out of them now. Apple will be a shell of its former self a few years from now. They build hardware for entertainment now, not for work. I can entertain myself, thank you. What I want to do is good work.
Just the opposite, Apple has enhanced Terminal by adding Swift, REPL (analogous to Playgrounds), LLDB... as shown below. You can even create an Xcode project from a Terminal script.
From an earlier post, here's a Bash Shell Script [created and run in an Xcode Playground] that builds and tests a Swift Package Manager, using Swift CLI commands: