[olavk]

I tried to learn AppleScript at one point because it had to do some automation on a Mac. It is an exceedingly confusing language, because the syntax does not clearly reflect the underlying semantic and processing model. The English-like syntax just obscures what is actually going on. Yeah it is easy to read, and readability is important, but I think they forgot that code have to be written before it can be read.

[sriku]

Just to add another data point, I didn't find it so. I can code up applescript if I want to completely relying on dynamic documentation. In fact, what surprised me was the ease with which I could pick it up after nearly a decade of touching it. The vocabulary explorer is awesome for scripting applications .. if only applications would care about them. Script editor offers coding up using JavaScript as well as applescript, but I'd any day pick AS over JS for its purpose because mental model is clearly established.

[tambourine_man]

The vocabulary explorer is indeed awesome and a great idea. Unfortunately not even Apple is very good at supporting them. And with Sal Soghoian's departure, automation at Apple will probably either change a lot or die.

My problem was the language syntax as a whole. But I'm particularly sensitive and picky on this issue. ObjC and Java's verbosity repel me so strongly I could never properly learn them, for instance, and so on.