[Pythonmac-SIG] Okay folks--show me how and I'll write it up...

[Daniel Lord]

Thank you all--I have my advice and pointers and I am off. I will 
document my successes and the list will hear about the road blocks 
along the way. I actually put iTunes down on my list ranked by priority 
behind scripting Mail and Address Book to do interesting things like 
archiving mail in MySQL and writing a common format XML for Address 
book one might use XLT with to print nicely formatted address list and 
books and to allow people with Exchange address books at work to 
synchronize them with their address books on OS X at home, etc., etc.

Perhaps I am biased, but I prefer the object-oriented core and base of 
Python and it's readability and extensibility (look at Jython as an 
example) over arcane, inconsistent, non-orthongonal, idiosyncratic 
listing processing Perl (told you I was biased ;-). Perl's richest 
asset is the availability of copious documentation and CPAN and, 
conversely, the lack of an analog for Python is Python's poorest asset 
and greatest inhibitor to widespread adoption (although ActiveState's 
Cookbook is helping despite its obvious Windows slant). Perl has 
stretched beyond it's intentions or design (like adding pseudo OOP) 
because access to a evolutionary language has been limited. It is my 
personal belief that, although Python has been mostly successful on it 
merits alone, its adoption has been slowed by a access barriers 
including a lack of documentation and repositories such as CPAN. 
Perhaps I can help in a small way on OS X. Python OSA is what Apple 
should have done before they created Applescript IMHO. Imagine the 
system and applications administration possibilities. Oh well, back to 
Earth and the reality distortion field.

And as Michael Barber said and it is worth repeating and remembering:
> Finally, I'd like to make a suggestion for Daniel and anyone else who 
> takes part in this project: document what you're doing and turn it 
> into a tutorial. I struggled when learning how to do OSA scripting 
> from Python, others have said that they struggled, and I've seen the 
> painful learning process that at least one person has gone through on 
> this mailing list. Python is a lot nicer than AppleScript for OSA 
> scripting, but it's pretty hard to get started. In my opinion, this is 
> in part due to the small number of examples.

Michael, I intend to work on it.  Guido, Jack, and Just and so many 
others are busy adding to Python, so some of us need to start adding to 
it's application and documentation. And, of course, I will write it up 
for what it's worth.

P.S. And BTW, can the SIG archives be setup so they are searchable on 
line? That would have saved me from mailing all of you with these 
questions.

Daniel Lord
--
daniellordATtelocityDOTcom                                             
"My  dancing, drinking, and singing weave me the mat
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upon which my soul will sleep in the world of spirits"
                                                                         
                   -- Old Man of Halmahera, Indonesia