Document Revision History

Added a chapter to describe the “Scripting Bridge” technology that was introduced in Mac OS X v10.5. In several places, noted that using Scripting Bridge can be easier and more efficient than using native Apple events to use the services of scriptable applications.

In “Open Scripting Architecture,” added a section “Faceless Background Applications” that describes this mechanism for extending AppleScript.

In the renamed chapter “AppleScript Utilities and Applications,” added a section to describe the AppleScript helper application “Database Events,” which is available beginning in Mac OS X v10.4. In the same chapter, noted that the AppleScript Utility and Folder Actions Setup applications are themselves scriptable. Also added information on new terminology supported by the System Events application, including the Desktop, Dock Preferences, Network Preferences, Security, and other new suites.

Moved the descriptions for “AppleScript Studio” and “Automator” to separate chapters and, in the latter, added information on new features available in Mac OS X v10.5.

Combined information that was previously in several places into the renamed chapter “Scriptable Applications.” The section “Support for Cocoa Applications” now provides links to sample code projects.

Added various information to the section “Specifying Scripting Terminology,” including a note that changes to sdef usage in Cocoa applications for Mac OS X v10.5 are described in the Scripting section of Foundation Release Notes.

In the section “Executing AppleScript Scripts as Shell Commands,” noted that in Mac OS X v10.5, you can use the # symbol as a comment-to-end-of-line token, providing a way to make a plain AppleScript script into a Unix executable. Also noted that in Mac OS X v10.5 there is a command-line tool to display compiled scripts as text, osadecompile.

In the section “The Parts of the Open Scripting Architecture,” noted that in Mac OS X v10.5, the Apple event framework, AE.framework, is now part of CoreServices.framework.

Updated Figure 1 showing a Finder dictionary.

In several places that refer to how AppleScript works with Cocoa applications, added or revised links to Cocoa Scripting Guide.

In the section “Resolving Objects in the Application,” added information about the AppleScript object model and about resolving objects in Cocoa applications.

Added sections “Determining What to Make Scriptable” and “AppleScript Studio.”

Moved some existing material into a new section, “Scriptable Applications.”

Made minor text revisions to avoid duplication with Getting Started with AppleScript.

Made some document references into links.

Updated some links to other documentation.

Moved this material into a separate document.

Reorganized some sections, added documentation links, and made minor corrections.