macOS Applescript Javascript OSA, other recommended OSAXen

[macmesser]

Just went to Late Night Software's web site and saw no mention of Javascript OSA, nor did a site search find any references. Too bad, since I'm working on a Filemaker DB and the functionality would have greatly surpassed Filemaker's formulas.

There was a neat list and record tool which I installed but I really need an osax which enables regex functionality, as Late nights Javascript did. Does anyone know of such a critter, or of a place where I might find some high quality (preferably free) osaxen?

 

[hhas]

Just went to Late Night Software's web site and saw no mention of Javascript OSA, nor did a site search find any references. Too bad, since I'm working on a Filemaker DB and the functionality would have greatly surpassed Filemaker's formulas.

There was a neat list and record tool which I installed but I really need an osax which enables regex functionality, as Late nights Javascript did. Does anyone know of such a critter, or of a place where I might find some high quality (preferably free) osaxen?

JavaScriptOSA was an OSA language component (i.e. a peer to the AppleScript language component), not an OSA eXtension (Apple event handlers plugin), and is long dead. OSAXen are also slowly dying out (good riddance; it's an abominable hack), but there are one or two genuinely useful ones still kicking about. For RE and other text manipulation commands, get Satimage osax.

Alternatively, you could use NSRegularExpression via the AppleScriptObjC bridge. AppleScript Editor in 10.7+ provides a (somewhat hacky) Cocoa-AppleScript Applet template; AppleScript libraries in 10.9+ can also access Cocoa APIs directly. Not that these options don't also have their own issues, but with AS you take what you can get.

Or, depending on what it is you're doing, you might even consider ditching Filemaker (which makes even MS Access look good), for Postgres which has bindings to various semi-decent languages such as Ruby and Python.

 

[macmesser]

JavaScriptOSA was an OSA language component (i.e. a peer to the AppleScript language component), not an OSA eXtension (Apple event handlers plugin), and is long dead. OSAXen are also slowly dying out (good riddance; it's an abominable hack), but there are one or two genuinely useful ones still kicking about. For RE and other text manipulation commands, get Satimage osax.

Alternatively, you could use NSRegularExpression via the AppleScriptObjC bridge. AppleScript Editor in 10.7+ provides a (somewhat hacky) Cocoa-AppleScript Applet template; AppleScript libraries in 10.9+ can also access Cocoa APIs directly. Not that these options don't also have their own issues, but with AS you take what you can get.

Or, depending on what it is you're doing, you might even consider ditching Filemaker (which makes even MS Access look good), for Postgres which has bindings to various semi-decent languages such as Ruby and Python.

Thanks for reply. I got the Smile software and will check out. Don't quite know what you mean by the alternative, accessing via AppleScriptObjC bridge. Is this a software which would run in the background and pass parameters and results between AppleScript and the Unix Regex program? BTW, When time permits I do plan to trade FileMaker for Postgres so as to maximize refturn on time invested in designing my applications.

 

[hhas]

Don't quite know what you mean by the alternative, accessing via AppleScriptObjC bridge.

http://www.macosxautomation.com/applescript/apps/

 

[macmesser]

http://www.macosxautomation.com/applescript/apps/

Thanks!