in reply to Where does Perl fit into OS X?

I don't think anyone has yet answered your first question --

What are the advantages to using Perl over AppleScript or vice versa?

AppleScript has the advantage that it's a little bit easier to learn for some folks, particularly non-programmers who view it as being more english-like. The advantage to programmers is that many programs have exposed an AppleScript API, so that people can write macros. AppleScript can also 'record' actions, making it even more like a macro writing language.

You can also be more assured that if the person's using a Mac, they'll have AppleScript -- even if it's pre-MacOS X.

What are the advantages of Perl? Well, I'm guessing in your case, you're more familiar with Perl, and if you're been using it for any sort of time, it's much more productive to work in a language you're familiar with, than to have to keep referring back to language documentation, and debug it.

But, Perl can't interfact with the applications -- for instance, to keep this on topic -- in BBEdit, it'll mark perl functions, so that you can quickly jump down to them. It doesn't, however, mark when you change packages within the same file, so the function scanner isn't useful when you're reading through SOAP::Lite or things written in a similar style. I use an AppleScript to set marks at the 'package' and 'sub' declarations (but it's on my machine at work, so I'll have to post it from there)

Update: Almost forgot to mention -- there are Applescript modules in CPAN, to call AppleScript from Perl

Update 2: AppleScript to mark Perl namespaces in BBEdit

tell application "BBEdit"
    activate
    mark text 1 of active document of text window 1 options {searching
+ for:"\\bpackage\\s+([a-zA-Z:0-9_]+)\\s*;", using:"\\1", clearing exi
+sting:true}
    mark text 1 of active document of text window 1 options {searching
+ for:"\\bsub\\s+([a-zA-Z0-9_]+)\\s*(?:\\([^)]\\)\\s*)?{", using:"  \\
+1", clearing existing:false}
end tell

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Re^2: Where does Perl fit into OS X?
by adrianh (Chancellor) on Aug 15, 2005 at 13:54 UTC
    AppleScript has the advantage that it's a little bit easier to learn for some folks, particularly non-programmers who view it as being more english-like.

    The fact that it looks more like English causes more problems than it solves in my experience. Newbie's, hell experienced programmers too, find it harder to separate out the meat from the syntactic fluff.

[reply]

      Perhaps 'easier to learn' isn't the right term ... 'less scary' would probably be more acurate -- there are a large number of people who are turned off when they see languages that rely heavily on punctuation and other symbol characters to do their work, just because they're not used to seeing it in their every day use. They see it, and are immediately turned off, which make it impossible to convince them that it's worth learning.

      You're right in that mistaking it for English can cause no end of headaches for people who don't understand the concepts of a 'Structured English' language, where you don't have as much freedom as with a true natural language. I wouldn't suggest that you try to write AppleScript without using Apple's 'Script Editor' which will quickly highlight some problems. Typically, I don't write Applescript from scratch--I use it to record my tasks, then go back and modify the script recorded to make it more generic.

      Those times that I've written AppleScript without recording, I've made heavy use of the Dictionaries feature in Script Editor.

[reply]
        This is excellent feedback to my first questions. I'm still hoping someone can elaborate a bit on my third. Cheers,
        Acolyte
        Studying at the feet of the masters
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