Method Underscores? (and a 'solution')

[Alex Martelli]

Steve Holden <steve at holdenweb.com> wrote:
   ...
> > tell application "Microsoft Word"
> >    open "MyWordFile"
> >    set selection to paragraph 1
> >    data size of selection as string
> > end tell
   ...
> > were cross-platform, it might perhaps make an even better beginners'
> > language than Python (and I think that of few languages).  It doesn't
> > scale up as well as Python, though, it appears to me.
> > 
> Yeah, it does have that Logo-like quality about it, doesn't it? For 
> beginners, of course, it's typically more interesting to be able to 
> write scripts to get their computers to do things they'd otherwise have
> to do themselves, so AppleScript-for-Windows might be a good Python project!

Yes, but mapping the simple "apple events" on which applescript is based
(and which are widespread in applications as well as the OS on the Mac,
e.g. MS Office apps implement them) to COM's richer and more complex
ways (and COM/Automation enjoys a similar prominence on Windows and its
applications) sounds like quite a task, requiring deep understanding of
both platforms.  Maybe I'm being pessimistic...


Alex