The Sleeper Hit Feature in Leopard

The Scripting Bridge allows you to automatically build "glue" code to access a scriptable application with standard Objective-C method calls.



The Scripting Bridge uses native Cocoa data types, such as NSString and NSArray, requires far less code than using an NSAppleEventDescriptor, and runs more than twice as fast as a precompiled NSAppleScript.

NSString *currentTrackName = [[iTunes currentTrack] name];

To open up the benefits of the Cocoa frameworks to a wider developer audience, Leopard embraces two other highly dynamic languages for use in building Cocoa applications: Ruby and Python.

The Sleeper Hit Feature in Leopard

Posted Dec 13, 2006 — 20 comments below Posted Dec 13, 2006 — 20 comments below

I almost completely forgot about this until Michael McCracken mentioned it, but one of the most significant bits about Leopard for developers (and aspiring developers) are the improvements to scripting support.First off, using AppleScript to communicate with other apps from within Objective-C isbetter. Here's what sayeth the article And here's what that looks like:This is very good. But that's not even the biggest news. No need to hold your breath any longer:The Ruby and Python bridges will be officially supported in Cocoa, including the key-value protocols. You don't have to choose just one language for your application. You can mix and match as necessary.Good things are afoot.