Is it a war between automatizing systems? Everything you can do with Automator, you can do it with Applescript but the inverse is not true. If you are a developer you will find it refreshing to automate some simple repetitive tasks with automator, but you will inevitably hit the limits of Automator and switch back to scripting; even if its a script action inside of Automator.
One thing Automator is good at: it gives you a GUI for your workflows and Automator actions can be seen as Applescript blocks ready for use. Drop a bunch of actions for standard stuff and then integrate some applescript and finish with some more default stuff performed by actions.
So if you are a developer what can Automator do for you? It can make it very simple to rapidly automate tasks you do in the finder, with safari, with quicktime. Copy files, sort files, rename them and then perform some specifique task in Applescript/Shell script; to end the process default stuff are again made within Automator, trash temporary files, move the end files to the destination folder.
What can Automator do for you if you’re not a developer? It lets you discover the world of automation and is your springboard to Scripting. There is one fact that seams to be forgotten lately. Computer were created to automate repetitive tasks.
Once I worked past time for a bigcompany, my work had nothing todo with development. But one day passing by the desk of a coworker I glanced over his shoulder at what he was working. Surprise, surprise he was copy pasting ton of data from a mainframe application to Excel. This task took him 2 hours daily, and he had to double check everything to make sure that there no mistake was in! I told him that I knew a way to help him perform his duty faster and more accuratly by scripting Excel to make a snapshot of the mainframe screen, an sort things out cleanly in columns. I am not a VBScript expert but it took me 30min to write and test the script and it saved him 2 hours of work every day. From time to time I think about it and I ask myself if the script is still in use today or if ti was replaced by somehting better.
Every computer, even the small devices(mobile phones) in your pocket are trillion times faster than they were back in the eighties and yet there are still people who have to go through daily hell of copy paste loop!
Automator takes a step in the right direction, though there is room for improvement to facilitate the acceptance by non tech people and facilitate the willing developers to distribute their scripts/actions/workflows. I took a step in this direction by providing two actions, but I think that I’ve not done enough to help. This will be my goal, for 2010.
This is my last post for this year and so I wish you all a happy new year!
springboard
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Tags: applescript, automation, automator, happy new year, script