AppleScript language guide updated, finally!

Applescript is a great starter programming language for the Mac user who wants to learn how to automate various tasks on the Mac--I personally don't recommend Automator, because you really don't learn anything. Applescript coding is very satisfying because you can speak pretty real language and things get done-furthermore, you have access to a lot of underlying layers of the OS including UNIX commands. I hope Apple doesn't abandon this important language anytime soon.

Cory,

I have a *slightly* offtopic question for you. I have some nifty Applescripts in Entourage that make my life MUCH easier, which are triggered by quickkeys (control-b, etc.). I've been looking at shifting to Mail, and I had no problems getting the scripts working in Mail, unfortunately, I can't trigger them with quickkeys. So far I've only been able to trigger them using Quicksilver or other 3rd party apps.

It just feels like I *must* be missing something. I'm able to trigger iTunes scripts with a quickkey, since iTunes has it's own scripts menu, but I can't turn that on for Mail.

Is that a hidden pref or something I can tweak?

I'd be happier if they consistently updated their AppleScript support in OS X. They finally fixed some bugs with Finder views in Leopard that I reported when Tiger was released. At the same time, pretty much any UI changes in Leopard are not scriptable - you can access all view settings EXCEPT "Always open in view". You can access all desktop picture settings EXCEPT "Translucent Menu Bar". The view setting in particular is a pain since it keeps those of us who like some semblance of spatiality from scripting this change across all of our folders...

Very nice. 268 pages in the pdf... Ambition!