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One of the more powerful features of the Mac OS is scripting. Scripting enables average users to become power users and tap into the latent potency of their systems without having to use mouse or keyboard. For example, a script that executes when a system boots up could run a mail program, scan messages in the in box for URLs of a certain form, and then open those URLs in Web browsers.
In a scripting language such as AppleScript, users write a series of statements, each of which seems like (or at least close to) a natural sentence in a language such as English. For example,
tell application "Finder" activate set the_version to (get the version) as text if the_version is less than "8" then beep display dialog "This script requires Mac OS 8 which is notinstalled on this computer." buttons {"Cancel"} default button 1 with icon 0 end if end tell
But once the script is interpreted and run, these sentences become control structures and commands to one or more applications on the user's system (including operating-system components such as the Finder). The beauty of scripting is that, with appealing simplicity, it extends and integrates what the operating system and each scriptable application have to offer.