Applescript - Programming language

Applescript is an open source programming language created in 1993.

#297on PLDB

31Years Old

3kRepos

AppleScript is a scripting language created by Apple Inc. and built into the Classic Mac OS since System 7 and into all versions of macOS. The term "AppleScript" may refer to the scripting system itself, to an individual script written in the AppleScript language, or to the language itself.. Read more on Wikipedia...

Tags: programming language
There are at least 3,425 Applescript repos on GitHub
Early development of Applescript happened in Apple
HyperTalk influenced the design of Applescript
The Google BigQuery Public Dataset GitHub snapshot shows 4k users using Applescript in 4k repos on GitHub
Explore Applescript snippets on Rosetta Code
Applescript on HOPL
Applescript appears in the TIOBE Index
Pygments supports syntax highlighting for Applescript
GitHub supports syntax highlighting for Applescript
Indeed.com has 6 matches for "applescript developer".
See also: (10 related languages) HyperTalk, Rexx, HyperCard, iOS, XPath, JavaScript, Perl, Python, Ruby, Tcl

Example from hello-world:

display dialog "Hello World"

Example from the Hello World Collection:

-- "Hello World" in AppleScript:

display dialog "Hello World"

Example from Linguist:

(*
Get User Name

This script uses UI element scripting to get the name for the
current user.

If "Enable access for assistive devices" is not checked,
this script will open the Universal Access System Preference and ask
the user to check the checkbox.

Copyright 2007 Apple Inc.

You may incorporate this Apple sample code into your program(s) without
restriction.  This Apple sample code has been provided "AS IS" and the
responsibility for its operation is yours.  You are not permitted to
redistribute this Apple sample code as "Apple sample code" after having
made changes.  If you're going to redistribute the code, we require
that you make it clear that the code was descended from Apple sample
code, but that you've made changes.
*)

tell application "System Preferences"
	activate
	set current pane to pane "com.apple.preferences.users"
end tell

tell application "System Events"
	if UI elements enabled then
		tell tab group 1 of window "Accounts" of process "System Preferences"
			click radio button 1
			delay 2
			get value of text field 1
		end tell
	else
		tell application "System Preferences"
			activate
			set current pane to pane "com.apple.preference.universalaccess"
			display dialog "UI element scripting is not enabled. Check \"Enable access for assistive devices\""
		end tell
	end if
end tell

Example from Wikipedia:

tell application "Finder"
	set anyNumber to my (random number from 5 to 50)
end tell

Language features

Feature	Supported	Example	Token
Integers	✓	-- [-+]?\d+
Floats	✓	-- [-+]?(\d+\.\d\|\d\.\d+)(E[-+][0-9]+)?
Strings	✓	"Hello world"	"
MultiLine Comments	✓	(* A comment *)	(* *)
Print() Debugging	✓		display dialog
Line Comments	✓	-- A comment	--
Message Passing	✓
Garbage Collection	✓
Comments	✓
Semantic Indentation	X