Apple® Automator with AppleScript® Bible

Chapter 1. What Is Automation?

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Why you should use automation

• A brief history of automation

• Examples of automation

• Why automate?

Before getting into any of the details concerning Mac OS X and automation, it's time to take a breather and get some perspective. There's plenty of time to go into all the intricacies of AppleScript, Automator, and all the ways to combine the two to automate workflows in later chapters. If this were any other book, then I could certainly get away with just a how to manual.

But this is a Bible, and that means letting you know not just how-to but also why-should-we, as well as why-do-we. By no means is this book meant to imply that you must do this instead of that because people who do this are good, and people who do that are bad, but it is meant to be a one-stop, comprehensive look at the topic.

There is going to be just a little bit of preaching, but rest assured, it will all be confined to this section of the book. Many of you are already converted, but some still need some prodding.

After this section, I'll get back to the details, but for now, it is important to understand the whys and wherefores of automation, and that means taking a short trip through history.

Why You Should Use Automation

I'm going to return to an important theme expressed in the Quick Start chapter: Simply put, people are good at some things, and computers are good at others. Humans have reason, intuition, and can apply their judgment, experience, and insight to the data they ...