ShellScript Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Terminally Geeky: How to tell if a script is being called from launchd

by TJ Luoma (Feb 25th, 2013)

Warning: command line geekiness ahead. When writing shell scripts, I often send interactive output to the user via echo to give feedback or information. But if the shell script is called on a schedule via OS X's behind-the-scenes process launcher launchd, rather than from a Terminal session, ...

Preparing high-res icon files with Automator

by Ben Waldie (Dec 31st, 2012)

This week's post is for all those Mac app developers out there. If you're not an app developer yet, it's a new year, and I'm sure becoming an app developer is at at the top of your resolution list. In any case, if you plan to develop apps, then you need to prepare icons for those apps. Apple ...

How to backup your Mac App Store apps

by TJ Luoma (Jan 23rd, 2012)

The excellent ReadNow application, which allows you to easily read articles from your Instapaper and Read It Later articles on your Mac, has been pulled from the Mac App Store "...because of an infringement letter." Developer Michael Schneider added "[i]n my current situation I'm not allowed to ...

Daily Mac App and Friday Favorite: CodeRunner

by TJ Luoma (Jan 6th, 2012)

CodeRunner is a text editor for people who write code. It comes with built-in syntax highlighting for AppleScript, C, C++, Java, JavaScript (Node.js), Objective,C, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, or shell scripting. I have been using it for a few months, mostly for writing shell scripts, and love it. ...

Revisiting the randomized signature AppleScript, now with API goodness

by Brett Terpstra (Feb 10th, 2009)

When I shared an AppleScript last week which created randomized signatures using TextExpander, I promised to revisit it when the iheartquotes.com API started working again. It's working right now, but it seems to go up and down; check this link before you try the script and make sure you get a ...

Random Signatures with TextExpander and AppleScript

by Brett Terpstra (Feb 2nd, 2009)

TextExpander, a $29.95US utility which inserts snippets of text or images when you type a preset string of characters, has long been a TUAW favorite. I only recently learned that it can run AppleScripts within a snippet, which opened up a world of fun for me. Here's a quick script demonstrating how ...

AppleScript: Integrating shell scripts

by Cory Bohon (Jun 23rd, 2008)

We've talked about AppleScript how-tos before. AppleScript is fun and all, but what if you already know how to write shell scripts? Well, did you know that by integrating shells scripts into AppleScript, you can create simple applications that do useful things? It's true, and I am going to show ...

Platypus: create Mac applications from Ruby, Perl, shell scripts, etc.

by Mat Lu (May 8th, 2007)

MacResearch has posted a nice two part tutorial on using Platypus, a neat utility that allows you to "create native, flawlessly integrated Mac OS X applications from interpreted scripts." This include shell scripts, Perl, Ruby, Python, etc. With Platypus you can turn command-line only tools into ...

ScriptExport: iPhoto Plugin Allows Shell Script Manipulation

by Mat Lu (Mar 16th, 2007)

Today is apparently iPhoto export plugin day as in addition to the Facebook iPhoto plugin and updated FlickrExport plugin mentioned earlier, John Gruber at Daring Fireball brings our attention to ScriptExport from Nathaniel Gray. ScriptExport "allows you to 'export' your iPhoto pictures and movies ...