This post is really just some ideas and thoughts. Forgive me if this is not the appropriate place for this type of article. If you have any comments regarding this post feel free to email me. I’d love to get input, insight and feedback from other developers.
I think I have the coolest job in the world. Sure, my scripts are not going to change the world, bring about world peace or make me rich, but every morning (or there abouts) when I sit down to begin work I think how lucky I am to be able to make a living doing something that I love. Developing automation solutions for various clients involves every skill I enjoy using: creativity, problem-solving, logic and often some hefty math. And when I am able to create a solution for a client and hear them say “Wow!”, it doesn’t get much better. During the 10 years I worked as a graphic designer, I never felt this way.
I am forever in the debt of a lot of great scripters in the industry for 99% of my knowledge of AppleScript and various scripting styles, methods, tricks, etc. (Danny Goodman, Sal Soghoian and Mark Munroe to name but a few). I am equally indebted to the team at Apple who conceived of, developed and continue to develop AppleScript.
I love talking about coding, information management and AppleScript with anyone who will listen. However, I am quite surprised by three of the most common responses I get from even avid Mac users. The first is total lack of awareness of how much of their daily tasks are repetitive. It’s usually something like “Yeah, that’s cool, but what I do is not really that repetitive”. The second response is “AppleScript? Yeah I’ve heard of it but I have no idea what it is”. And the third is the impression that AppleScript does some neat little tricks but isn’t a SERIOUS business solution. One client even recently commented “Oh, it’s like a macro” (obviously a Windows user).
The third response interests me the most. I guess, honestly, before I delved into AppleScript 5 or 6 years ago, I had a similar impression. I often wonder how this impression originated and how it perpetuates. When you mention scripting languages like JavaScript, Perl or PHP the response is quite different. It is usually something like “Man, that’s way over my head”. Granted, AppleScript is not cross-platform and is designed for a different purpose but it is my humble opinion that AppleScript has all of the power and potential of other scripting languages.
I think that the AppleScript Development community has only scratched the surface of its reservoir of knowledge, business solutions and profits for both developers and clients. For example, I recently developed a solution for a commercial printer that sorts the contents of client disks into the printer’s job folder hierarchy (Output Files, Images, Fonts, etc.). The customer service reps receive the disks, create a job folder, sort the files, then submit the job to pre-press. Manually, this task took the CSR anywhere from 15-45 minutes depending on how many files were on the disk and how organized (or dis-organized) the disk was. The printer receives about 2,500 new jobs per year. At an average of 30 minutes sorting each disk, that is 1,250 man hours per year spent sorting files. With an AppleScript solution, sorting even the most dis-organized disk of 500 or so files takes a maximum of about 5 minutes (including inserting disk, entering job number and sorting). AppleScript is now saving this client over 1,000 man hours per year. Depending on the hourly cost to employ the CSR, that is a potential savings of tens of thousands of dollars for an AppleScript solution that took about 30 hours to concept, write and test. And this is one of the simpler and smaller solutions I’ve created.
AppleScript is a POWERFUL solution. I think that we as developers and Apple as the creator, can do more to promote the technology and on a higher level. A million thanks to MacScripter.net for trying to do just that. I am really interested in exploring more ways of collectively promoting AppleScript Automation on the level I believe it should and could be. I believe that this would benefit all developers and increase potential revenues.
I look forward with great excitement to the future of AppleScript, the development community and my own business relationships. As I said earlier, my job won’t change the world but man am I having fun. Thanks for reading. --Scott Lewis, Catalyst Workflow Solutions, LLC