AppleScript 1-2-3 Training Guide - Official Apple Series for Mac Automation | Learn Scripting for Productivity & Workflow Efficiency

Before buying, I read all the reviews for this book and all of the reviews for many of the other competing books (Neuburg's O'Reilly book, Goldstein's 'Missing Manual', Sanderson's A-Press 'Learn Applescript' and a few others I've forgotten along the way). I was a bit put off by some of the 5-star reviews for this one, particularly the one by the guy that knows the author, and others that clearly indicated they were all familiar with AS already. However, what convinced me to buy this was reading the sample chapter (use the 'Look Inside' feature or download a sample to your computer/Kindle device).What the sample chapter exemplifies is the teaching approach used throughout the book. Unlike one of the other reviewers of this title who complains 'its repetitive,' I welcome that as a learner. As a teacher (in a completely different sphere than computer programming), I can also attest that there are two general principles in learning any skill that all educators know: you learn by doing, and you learn by doing something repetitively. Think playing the piano, or guitar, or driving a car. No one gets good at these things by reading about them (they need to learn by doing) and no one gets good at these things without doing them repetitively (the old cliche 'practice makes perfect' is about as true as it gets in education). That is the first principle behind this book from the first chapter onwards. You are writing and running scripts on almost every page, not wading through reams of boring theory. Whatismore, unlike a lot of other books on programming languages I've looked at (and given up on) this book doesn't sucker you with a few easy chapters at the beginning and then ramp up the difficulty level once you've bought (into) it. The style and approach is consistent throughout.The second principle behind this book is to teach concepts by way of an extended example - again, a fundamental pedagogic method. So yes - as someone complained - most of the example scripts, at least in the first half of the book, concern Finder, which you probably aren't interested in programming, but that is irrelevant. The author uses the Finder to teach the standard suite and main libraries such as system events and image events, most of which you're likely to use in any kind of complex applescript programming. More importantly, he uses it to teach the syntax of the language and the underlying concepts that all scriptable apps must conform to.He doesn't gloss over the difficulties of Applescript or its inconsistencies, but nor does he dwell on them (which was my impression of the Neuburg book based on the sample chapter). He teaches you about many of the pitfalls, and occasionally he'll throw in a script and point out why it doesn't work. Some of the main inconsistencies are pointed out and ways to get round them. But again, the examples are illustrating principles and concepts that will often apply elsewhere.Is this book really for beginners (another complaint I saw in the reviews)? Absolutely. It's hard to imagine how anyone could think this requires any prior knowledge of programming, but this is a claim you can verify for yourself by looking at the sample chapter.Finally, this book is extremely comprehensive and very good value. You get something like an 800 page book for $20, and it pretty much covers about everything you can script that comes with a standard mac install. I'm using this book on Mountain Lion, and even though the book was written for Leopard, it is still entirely relevant and accurate to what I see on my machine.The only caveat I'm going to offer on this book is this: if you like to learn stuff by reading abstract theoretical explanations, if you don't actually want to role up your sleeves and get typing scripts from the get-go and in between almost every 2 to three minutes of reading, then this 'hands on' approach is not for you. But if you actually want to learn Applescript by using Applescript, I doubt there's a better book out there.