Versions

Things change. All things change. And software often changes faster than the ability of printed books to keep up with it. It may therefore be useful for the reader to know what versions of software I was looking at when I wrote this book. The first draft was written using Mac OS X 10.2.6 ("Jaguar") and AppleScript 1.9.1. While polishing the final draft I had access to a preview version of Mac OS X 10.3 ("Panther"), with AppleScript 1.9.2 and Script Editor 2.0 v41, and the book treats these as the standard. Screen shots were redone using Panther. There may be further changes in Panther, and possibly even in AppleScript, by the time the book goes to print, but if so, it seems unlikely that these will affect the book's content; still, the reader should be alert to the possibility of slight discrepancies between what I describe and the now current state of things.

The book is written entirely from the perspective of Mac OS X. This is a deliberate design decision. There is an important sense in which Mac OS 9 really is frozen, if not downright moribund: very few new applications of any importance are being written for it, it is not likely to evolve further to any significant extent, and Apple has begun to produce computers which won't even boot in it. If you are not using Mac OS X, this book might still be useful to you, but please keep in mind that it isn't geared primarily to your situation.