Comments on: FastScripts Is A Team Player

By: Dr. Drang

Dr. Drang — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 21:34:34 +0000

Ben Kimball:

The only thing holding me back from trying it is that AppleScript makes me frustrated. Can FastScript fire Ruby/Perl/PHP/shell scripts?

You left out Python ;) Our host is probably enjoying his holiday, so I'll answer: Yes, as its description page says, FastScripts is language agnostic. The script I probably invoke most often through FastScripts is a screenshot/upload utility written in Python. dacresni:

why would you replace one free tool with three pay (non free) tools?

Daniel's answer—without the bottled water analogy—is spot on. I used Quicksilver for a long time and was continually frustrated by its lack of stability. When I tested LaunchBar, Jumpcut, and FastScripts, I found them to work well together and they've never had to be restarted/reconfigured/reinstalled. See the blog post Daniel linked to for details. Also, Jumpcut and FastScripts Lite are free.

By: Ben Kimball

Ben Kimball — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 19:31:27 +0000

The only thing holding me back from trying it is that AppleScript makes me frustrated. Can FastScript fire Ruby/Perl/PHP/shell scripts?

I currently use QuickSilver for everything, but there are a few annoyances. For example, at the University we used FirstClass for voice mail on the desktop. QS wouldn’t let me alias ‘VM’ as the shortcut for an app named “FirstClass” because the letters don’t match up. So I had to make an AppleScript (“tell application ‘FirstClass’ to activate”) and save it as an application named “VM” so I could launch it with QuickSilver.

By: dacresni

dacresni — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 23:32:56 +0000

true but I also liked other quicksilver vs deskbar so, to each his own.

By: Daniel Jalkut

Daniel Jalkut — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 19:43:22 +0000

dacresni: Presumably they like the overall experience better? Boiling things down to free or not free always seems like a shallow analysis to me. Why do people buy bottled water when it’s raining?

By: dacresni

dacresni — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 04:17:12 +0000

why would you replace one free tool with three pay (non free) tools?

By: Daniel Jalkut

Daniel Jalkut — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 07:46:10 +0000

HI DoctorB – thanks for the positive feedback! That’s a great point about being able to use FastScripts Lite to “give the gift of scripting” to friends and family. I like that.

By: DoctorB

DoctorB — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 03:50:02 +0000

While I’m here I’d like to chime in with praise for two of FastScripts’ smaller features. First, the fact that you can use icons on script files and they actually show up in the menu (unlike Apple’s script menu). So small, and maybe a nerd feature, but the ability to make menu options visually distinct is is a useful one that I enjoy very much. Second, the availability of FastScripts Lite, which allowed me to set up keyboard shortcuts for friends and family to extend their applications without making them remember to click on a menu. They don’t even have to know they’re doing something that isn’t built-into the application.

By: Dr. Drang

Dr. Drang — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 21:33:09 +0000

@Zachary: I’ve dropped Jumpcut from one on my machines as I experiment with LaunchBar 5. FastScripts’ place is secure, though. Even if it couldn’t assign keyboard shortcuts, FastScripts’ application-sensitive rearrangement of the scripts menu would make it a great utility.

By: Zachery Bir

Zachery Bir — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 14:07:31 +0000

And with the new Clipboard History feature of LaunchBar 5, he can possibly eliminate Jumpcut, too.

By: Paul D. Waite

Paul D. Waite — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 07:23:48 +0000

Hope Brent blogs his thoughts on it, I’m struggling with e-mail myself.