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Myth Busters?

MacScripter has a comprehensive article, "Dispelling the Automator myth: Get the Facts on Automator". It gives a good overview of Job's WWDC session, and goes on to ruminate how Automator might fit within existing Applescript environments:

"Automator gives AppleScript even more reach, depth, and validity. It will make more people recognize the importance of automation. It will drive adoption of AppleScript in applications. It will bring AppleScript to people who never would have used it before. Because they're so light-weight and portable, AppleScript scripts will continue to be written, shared, and used. Automator just provides another means for scripters to deliver the power of AppleScript."

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Welcome to AutomatorWorld!

At Apple's 2004 World Wide Developer's Conference, CEO Steve Jobs gave a preview of OS X 10.4, Tiger. One of the most exciting new features of Tiger is Automator, (currently code-named Pipeline) "an innovative personal automation assistant that will help you streamline the most challenging repetitive manual tasks without programming. It works like a robot inside your computer." Asimovian robotic imagery aside, Automator is in my opinion the coolest new tool in the Mac arsenal, and thus is born AutomatorWorld.

autobotFor now, AutomatorWorld will be focused on bringing you the latest news on Automator development and functionality as it trickles out of the developer community. When Automator is released to the wild next year, we plan to build-up our library of Workflows, both homegrown and contributed by users.

By the way--this is a brand new site, so we're looking for any suggestions, ideas or comments you may have. Please feel free to send us your feedback, or visit our forums. Please also check out our Merchandise which we hope will help offset the cost of running this site.

Thanks, and again, welcome to AutomatorWorld, the resource for Automator Workflows, news and tips. We hope you'll visit us in the coming months as we lead up to its release.

AutomatorWorld
Better Living Through Macintosh Scripting

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Automator News Roundup

EWeek has a good overview of core Automator technologies and functionality, including a number of good screenshots. They do have a word of caution, noting "the current lack of conditionals gives scripts no way of handling error conditions other than to simply abort the script. Developers creating custom workflows for customers in the Mac's professional content creation or scientific and technical markets will need the more complex scripting capabilities offered in the current tools".

Macworld makes the insightful observation, "Will everyone use Automator? Probably not. But those that do will save so much time, they'll be way ahead of people who don't."