The state of AppleScript: Let's not panic ... yet
It’s that time again. A new version of OS X is out, and with it come the recurring cries of AppleScript’s demise. But let’s try to remain calm: Recent Internet rumors that the sky is falling may be slightly exaggerated. Nobody knows for sure what the future holds, but personally, I don’t think AppleScript is going anywhere just yet.
If you’ve been following the headlines this past week, you may have seen stories like “iWork 13—A Huge Regression,” “AppleScript Support Effectively Gone From New iWork Apps,” and “Mixed AppleScript Signals.” It’s true, the AppleScript support in the latest versions of the iWork apps (Pages, Numbers, and Keynote) has almost completely evaporated overnight. Numbers, which previously had fairly extensive scripting support, now has no AppleScript dictionary at all. Pages’ scripting support has been reduced to a single export command. And Keynote has likewise found its scripting capabilities limited.
AppleScript dictionaries for Pages in iWork '09 (left) and the 2013 version of Pages (right).
The ebb and flow of AppleScript
Losing scripting support in iWork is a real shame. It breaks workflows and produces bad PR for AppleScript. It’s not unprecedented, though. The level of AppleScript support in OS X and Mac apps has changed repeatedly over the years. AppleScript recording in the Finder, for example, was completely broken in OS X 10.0 and wasn’t fixed until 10.3. When Apple migrated from QuickTime 7 to QuickTime X, the app’s AppleScript support was significantly impacted. In fact, QuickTime 7 is still available for download on Apple’s website today, and its great AppleScript support may be one of the reasons.
Other changes have also impacted AppleScript over the years. Most recently, Apple’s security initiatives—Gatekeeper and app sandboxing—have forced both Apple and developers to rethink the ways scripts are launched and shared. And Mavericks implements some additional security restrictions around the way GUI scripting works.
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