AppleScript

Applescript is estimated by the Georgia Institute of Technologies Annual World Wide Web survey, among others, as the second most common language for Internet CGI development after PERL. Indeed, after a period of being almost forgotten, a host of new developments in the Applescript world have brought AppleScript into the limelight once again. Products and free 'add-ons' like Marionette, from Allegiant technologies, allow AppleScripters to 'script the Internet', -- write simple applications that reach out into the network and search web sites, download files, even write their own web browsers. In addition, products like FaceSpan allow AppleScripters to add sophisticated application interfaces to their scripts, making it harder to differentiate between an AppleScript and a 'regular' application. These developments, combined with an estimated 5 million AppleScripts worldwide has prompted Apple Computer Inc. to start development again, and the first PowerPC native version of AppleScript, with a host of new features and a dramatic speed increase, has been announced for the middle of 1998.