Dori Smith

"that's application-specific scripting period. Javascript will no more avoid that than AppleScript. Keep in mind that "application-specific scripting" is what most first-time scripters are trying to do. That's why they get frustrated so quickly, because what they learned from trying to script app a doesn't apply when they try to learn to script app b. JavaScript, unlike AppleScript, does have some ways to avoid that. One way is what Adobe's got buried under the hood of the CS suite: a full JavaScript IDE and debugger. Another is that few people are trying to JavaScript applications as their first project; instead, they get comfortable using it inside the browser sandbox, and only then do they want to do more with it. Lastly, there are plenty solid free frameworks out there, and they make doing things cross-browser much simpler than it was just a few years ago. I suspect that if more apps were JavaScript-able, at least a few of the frameworks would be extended to cover apps darn quickly..." - Dori Smith

"Ummm... my 2¢, from an entirely different angle: - I hate AppleScript. I hated AS long before JavaScript was invented. After way too much effort, I came to the conclusion that no one ever really learns AS; instead, you learn AS for a single application. And then you have to learn it again for another app. And then again for a third. And then when you go back to the first code you wrote, you can't remember which of the various dialects it uses, so you have to start all over again. - I like JavaScript. Over the last dozen-plus years, it's been very good to me. Some days, I even feel like it likes me back. - I've never learned Cocoa, 'cause I don't do that kind of programming. I'm sure I could learn it, but I'd need to either have someone paying me to do it or give me a promise of paying work at the end of it^[1]—as it is, life is too short to learn everything I'd like to learn. Which gets me to: - JSTalk, from the little I've looked at it, ain't JavaScript. Or at least the..." - Dori Smith