Newbie text delete character question

Scripting Forums AppleScript | Mac OS X
#1

Hi. I was hoping that Applescript would allow this:

delete the last character of myString

But it doesn’t. Does anyone know of an elegant way to delete the a specific character in a string, namely the first or last?

Thanks,

#2 
set newString to text 1 thru -2 of "Missing last character"
set newString to text 2 thru -1 of "Missing first character"
#3

Thanks man.