Apple Script

[Frankg]

Hi,

 

I like Designer and Photo very much. Did You ever plan to support AppleScript on the Mac? Would be very handy.

 

Thanks

 

Frankg

[KiboOst]

It would be better to have a real scripting API, like python :rolleyes:

[F_WRLCK]

AppleScript support really just means that the application has a set of App Events that is has implemented. The scripting itself can be done in either AppleScript or JavaScript. It's also fairly trivial to call these scripts from Python using the osascript utility. In theory, you can implement OSA bindings directly in Python, but all the implementations that I'm aware of are outdated and unsupported.

[DarkClown]

Think global ... considering AP and AD supports iOS and Windows it would only make sense to support a common script language (e.g. JavaScript ... Python might do as well, but it's by far not as well known ...)
btw: what is "AppleScript" ? Text written by a fruitpen? *bg*

[KiboOst]

 Python might do as well, but it's by far not as well known ...

 

Are you serious ? Python is used in a lot of CG industry, nearly all high-end software (maya, 3dsmax, Nuke etc) have python API, it is THE standard in this industry.

[AshTeriyaki]

They have said that scripting is coming and it will be javascript.

[DarkClown]

Are you serious ? Python is used in a lot of CG industry, nearly all high-end software (maya, 3dsmax, Nuke etc) have python API, it is THE standard in this industry.

I know ... but I said "It's by far not as well known" ... want to start a survey how many JavaScript programmers vs. Python programmers are around? ;-) ... Considering that both languages will be good for the task, I'd prefere the language that is spread more widely ... (but honestly, it really doesn't matter that much looking at the tasks to achieve).

[rui_mac]

Well, nowadays I code mainly in python and C++.

I code scripts and plugins for Cinema 4D. I have a choice of using COFFEE (almost exactly the same as javascript), python and C++.

I used to code in COFFEE/javascript but since I had an option to use python, I almost completely ditched COFFEE/javascript because python is so, so much better.
And I only use C++ when I need the extra speed and to access data structures and libraries that are still not yet available to python.

So, python would be the best option. It is multi-platform and so powerful.

 

Oh, by the way, I'm not a programmer. I'm just a graphic designer that is also a tremendous geek ;)

[KiboOst]

Well, I would even not compare javascript and Python ... Python is so much more powerful, easy to learn, efficient, more readable, and a standard for such softwares. Adobe is using Javascript, this should be a sign lol !

[F_WRLCK]

Tying the scripting infrastructure to a particular language is dumb. Every platform has its own application scripting infrastructure so hopefully the Affinity team is on the ball enough to just use the native mechanism for the platform. Failure to do so would be pretty inconvenient since a big use case for application scripting is to provide adhoc integrations between applications.

[KiboOst]

You really want batch scripting under windows ??

Mode sarcasm off :-)

 

Python is widely used on both platform ...

[rui_mac]

My vote is for python.

[F_WRLCK]

Yeah, but that's just not how the application automation frameworks work for either Windows or OSX. The application implements the events that it responds to and the OS mediates the exchange. The whole thing is language agnostic.

[KiboOst]

So we are talking about totally different things.

automation and API have nothing comparable. Automation basically simulate click in the UI, really good for very basic stuff. A python API would allow you to access core features, doing a lot more, creating plugins to do stuff impossible, etc. We develop lot of pipeline tools, integration tools and plugins with python in such apps, it has absolutely nothing to do with automation. You could for example parse any file format to import stuff Affinity never though about, write your own format to integrate with other tools, etc. Or enter some metadatas in documents, connect them with your team database for artistic direction tools,etc. No limit !

[F_WRLCK]

...but this thread is titled "Apple Script". Which is one of the OSX automation languages. The OP specifically asked about Apple Script and then this thread filled with people talking about Python, which was, to say the least, confusing. If you want access to internal APIs for building your own Affinity plugins or whatnot, that's great, but what OP was talking about is an automation tool with which, presumably, he or she would like to automate some task.

[KiboOst]

Yes you are totally right :-/

[Peter Werner]

We have had these discussions in other threads already. Automating tasks is possible with Python as well, but Apple Script (which I personally find really confusing in terms of syntax) ultimately means support for platform-specific automation interfaces on the Mac, including support for tools like the discontinued Apple Automator. So depending on the intention of the feature request, Python may or may not be a viable alternative.

 

While I think Python would be fantastic because it is equally well-suited for simple and easy tasks that a beginner with very little programming experience might want to tackle, to complex seamless integration that would require lower-level C++ plug-ins in other software, I think it might be more constructive for us to talk about what type of automation and workflows we are trying to solve, rather than request specific technologies.

 

So looking at the original post, are we talking about requests for AppleScript because of Mac users' familiarity with the language? Or is it a request for a way to automate things where calls have to be made to multiple different programs, rather than just Affinity itself? Or is it simply about having robust scripting capabilities, regardless of language?