Badunit
Level 6 (11,705 points)
iTunes

Q: Applescript support?

The KB article about what is coming in the next 6 months lists "Improvements to AppleScript support" for Numbers 3.0.  AppleScript Editor tells me Numbers 3.0 is unscriptable.  So by "improvements to AppleScript support" does Apple mean "Bringing back Applescript support" or am I missing something? Is there any AppleScript support in Numbers 3.0 now?

OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Nov 17, 2013 3:29 PM

by SGIII,Solvedanswer
SGIII SGIII
Level 6 (10,796 points)
Mac OS X
A:

Yes, Numbers 3.0, and indeed any modern application on the Mac, does support AppleScript to an extent. Numbers 3.0 allows AppleScript access to menu items, so you can do GUI scripting.  See this thread for a recent example with Numbers 3.0.

 

I hope "improvements to AppleScript support" means that it will once again be possible to "tell" objects within Numbers: documents, sheets, tables, cells.  AppleScript support, of course, is not a "it supports/it doesn't support" dichotomy. It's a question of degree of support, how robust Numbers 3 "suite" in the AppleScript dictionary will be. Numbers 2.3 doesn't have extensive support, but it covers the basics.  I hope that will be the case for Numbers 3 as well.

 

SG

Posted on Nov 17, 2013 6:17 PM

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Badunit

Q: Applescript support?

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  • by SGIII,Solvedanswer

    SGIII SGIII Nov 17, 2013 6:17 PM in response to Badunit
    Level 6 (10,796 points)
    Mac OS X
    Nov 17, 2013 6:17 PM in response to Badunit

    Yes, Numbers 3.0, and indeed any modern application on the Mac, does support AppleScript to an extent. Numbers 3.0 allows AppleScript access to menu items, so you can do GUI scripting.  See this thread for a recent example with Numbers 3.0.

     

    I hope "improvements to AppleScript support" means that it will once again be possible to "tell" objects within Numbers: documents, sheets, tables, cells.  AppleScript support, of course, is not a "it supports/it doesn't support" dichotomy. It's a question of degree of support, how robust Numbers 3 "suite" in the AppleScript dictionary will be. Numbers 2.3 doesn't have extensive support, but it covers the basics.  I hope that will be the case for Numbers 3 as well.

     

    SG

  • by Jerrold Green1,

    Jerrold Green1 Jerrold Green1 Nov 17, 2013 7:16 PM in response to Badunit
    Level 7 (30,001 points)
    Nov 17, 2013 7:16 PM in response to Badunit

    Badunit wrote:

     

    The KB article about what is coming in the next 6 months lists "Improvements to AppleScript support" for Numbers 3.0.  AppleScript Editor tells me Numbers 3.0 is unscriptable.  So by "improvements to AppleScript support" does Apple mean "Bringing back Applescript support" or am I missing something? Is there any AppleScript support in Numbers 3.0 now?

    I think it's safe to say that most useful AppleScripts written for Numbers 2.3 will not run in Numbers  3.0. Next release, no specifics.

     

    Jerry

  • by SGIII,

    SGIII SGIII Nov 17, 2013 7:24 PM in response to Jerrold Green1
    Level 6 (10,796 points)
    Mac OS X
    Nov 17, 2013 7:24 PM in response to Jerrold Green1

    I think it's safe to say that most useful AppleScripts written for Numbers 2.3 will not run in Numbers  3.0. Next release, no specifics.

     

    Jerry,

     

    Some useful things clearly can and have been done with GUI scripting in Numbers 3.0.  And isn't this kind of stating the obvious?  Since when does Apple give specifics on upcoming releases, either of hardware or software?

     

    SG

  • by Jerrold Green1,

    Jerrold Green1 Jerrold Green1 Nov 17, 2013 7:34 PM in response to SGIII
    Level 7 (30,001 points)
    Nov 17, 2013 7:34 PM in response to SGIII

    SG,

     

    I am sure you realize that there is no conflict in the two statements "Some useful things clearly can and have been done with GUI scripting in Numbers 3.0" and "most useful AppleScripts written for Numbers 2.3 will not run in Numbers  3.0".

     

    Both are soft and rather a matter of opinion depending on your needs. Which statement is of more importance to you depends on where you are coming from.

     

    Jerry

  • by Hiroto,

    Hiroto Hiroto Nov 18, 2013 3:41 AM in response to Badunit
    Level 5 (7,348 points)
    Nov 18, 2013 3:41 AM in response to Badunit

    Hello

     

    Note that the said article [1] states nothing about any improvements to AppleScript support in Pages v5 and yet the existing AppleScript support in Pages v5 is reportedly miserable one, which lacks the decent objects model and decent methods to manipulate them. It would suggest the degree of "improvements to AppleScript support" in Numbers v3.

     

    Another thing to note is that iToy platform does not support AppleScript at all and thus implementing extensive scripting support in Numbers for Mac would contradict their obssessed scheme to have a common (divisor) software for both platforms. It would suggest the AppleScript support in Numbers v3 would never be better than in Numbers v2 at the most which itself is very limited to say the least.

     

    After all, it seems quite clear to me that Apple has effectively killed iWork for Mac by degenerating it into iToy version. From my experience I no longer see any future in this programme suite as productivity work horse.

     

    [1] http://support.apple.com/kb/HT6049

     

    Just my thought,

    H

  • by Badunit,

    Badunit Badunit Nov 18, 2013 5:17 AM in response to Hiroto
    Level 6 (11,705 points)
    iTunes
    Nov 18, 2013 5:17 AM in response to Hiroto

    I was pretty ticked off at the direction Apple took too. Still am. I was mad enough to export a bunch of documents to Excel and start using Excel again. But after a few days of trying to figure out workarounds in Excel for the things that worked differently/better/easier in Numbers and trying to manipulate formulas to make them fit the Excel way of doing things, I got frustrated with Excel and decided to give Numbers another chance. There are some Excel features I miss such as great speed in calculation, much better options for locking cells/tables, and some options available for charts but the rest of the app is painful to use. The interface is especially painful. An analogy is if I took my toolbox full of tools and had someone place each tool randomly somewhere in my house. You would think all the wrenches would be together, all the screwdrivers would be together, etc. but, no, it isn't that way. After a while I might figure out where they all so I could get some work done but it wouldn't be worth the effort; It would be easier to just use my other toolbox.

  • by Jerrold Green1,

    Jerrold Green1 Jerrold Green1 Nov 18, 2013 7:22 AM in response to Badunit
    Level 7 (30,001 points)
    Nov 18, 2013 7:22 AM in response to Badunit

    Badunit,

     

    If you want to be part of the solution , you might want to apply for the iWork Software Engineer position that Apple posted 4 days ago!

     

    Jerry