AppleScript Syntax: Some Depressing Examples

Let's expand on the previous post by looking at some examples of how discussion of syntax poisons discussion of AppleScript. Just to be clear, the examples are taken from blogs I like and read regularly; I'm sure there are many other examples, but I haven't gone out of my way to find these.

First, let's return to Daring Fireball. John Gruber recently wrote that

AppleScript, as a programming language, is a noble but failed experiment.

To support this, he links to an earlier article, The English-Likeness Monster, in part of which he makes the far more modest claim that AppleScript's English-like syntax is a failed experiment.

Well, which is it? Languages are more than their syntax. Reading the article doesn't clarify much. Gruber details how a bug he experienced was caused by a subtle name conflict in scripting dictionary terminology. He gives a cogent description of the semantics of name resolution in AppleScript, showing how the name resolution semantics leads to the bug he experienced. However, buried within is a lengthy rant on AppleScript's syntax. It looks like, and is identified as, a digression (well, it is called an "interpolation"—Gruber is a David Foster Wallace fan, as I recall), but gives the post its title. Just what is the intent?

Additionally, there is mention of Python and JavaScript as having clearer, if more abstract, syntax than AppleScript, which helps to prevent such problems. However, if you had AppleScript's syntax but Python's name resolution, you literally could not have the same error. There is a difference at a far deeper level than the syntax. To what extent are these articles supposed to be about syntax, semantics, surrounding tools, libraries (i.e., scripting additions),…?

As a second example, let's take a look at an interesting article from Daniel Jalkut's Red Sweater Blog, called Apple's Script. Jalkut makes what is essentially an economic argument that Apple should make JavaScript the default scripting language for the Mac, keeping AppleScript as an alternative point of access to the Open Scripting Architecture. His key point is that Apple is devoting significant resources to JavaScript, and will continue to do so for strategic reasons. Further, due to wide-spread experience with JavaScript, it is in practice easier for users, despite the supposed ease of use of AppleScript (aside: I dispute that AppleScript is easy to use).

Nothing in the article depends in any way on the syntax of AppleScript, but look through the responses! Several people bring up AppleScript syntax, both as a positive and as a negative. Once the issue of syntax appears, the discussion pretty much stays there. It's a shame, because I think that Jalkut's point was an interesting one, and really does warrant some thought.