Archive Colophon

Quirks and Inconsistences Regarding Apple's Recently-Refreshed AppleScript Subsite

Last week, Apple refreshed their AppleScript subsite for Leopard, as it was for Tiger two years ago. If you haven't seen it yet, take a quick look and come back when you're done.

Now, a website redesign is long past due, because AppleScript is still very much alive in Leopard as it was in Tiger, and Panther before that; therefore, it deserves a proper subsite. But now that said site out, I can't help but notice how many tiny weird mistakes slipped past the dev team before it went live.

Admittedly-Anal Aesthetic Observations

I'll start with the page design. A continuing design trend on Apple.com is to cast the consumer-oriented pages in a light color scheme, and the geekier/"pro" pages in a dark one ¹ -- I'll use the Final Cut Studio subsite for my example. To assure that the dark page text is as easy to read as light page text, main body text is cast in dim gray, and lighter gray is used starkly for headers and main points to help them stick out. You'll also notice the liberal use of rounded corners, gradients, and other image touches- unnecessary, but they do look nice:

The AppleScript site, in stark contrast, doesn't do any of this. All of the text is cast in the same light-gray, and the font size makes it difficult to read compared to the Final Cut Studio site. In addition, the site seems sorely lacking in Apple's usual plethora of images, aside from the main header and some other miscellaneous tidbits (go back to the site and take a look, but I've saved a screenshot for posterity):

No Love for Gecko?

Here's one of the crazier issues: compatibility for Gecko-based browsers. I'll start with the top bar; aside from the fact that, aesthetically, it's a rather homely design, it removes the bar "shadow" in Firefox, leaving a weird gap in its place:

There are more nutty issues, though. Not only do the sidebar containers float off the page content, but the images used to represent outbound links have a thick, ugly border in Gecko browsers: ²

Maybe In 2002

Perhaps the most bothersome aspect of the site to me are two of the subsite's pages- "Features", and "Learn", mainly because they're pitifully short. For example, here is the entire body text of the "Learn" page:

AppleScript is used in a wide variety of ways within Mac OS X and its hosted applications. This section provides links to script examples you can incorporate into your own scripts.

ESSENTIAL SUB-ROUTINES

A collection of generic sub-routines for accomplishing common AppleScript functions.

LAUNCH SCRIPTS FROM LINKS

Create AppleScript applets that respond to links embedded in web pages displayed on the user's computer.

That's 9 lines of writing, including breaks and the header- not enough to cover a full page of space.

...and as if I wasn't far too anal about this whole thing already, just listen to the tone of the introductory paragraphs, which, aside from sounding plain un-Apple-like, remain nearly unchanged since they were first written in 2002:

Current

Powerful, easy-to-learn, easy-to-use automation for Macintosh systems.

Everyone who uses a computer knows how daunting it can be to perform the same series of tasks over and over again. For example, try to change the name of 75 files in a folder and you'll soon realize how time-consuming and stressful repetitive actions can be. Isn't there an easier way?

Yes, it's called AppleScript.

December 2002

Powerful, easy-to-learn automation for Macintosh systems.

Everyone who uses a computer knows how boring it can be to perform the same series of tasks over and over again. For example, try to add ".tiff" the name of 75 files in a folder and you'll soon realize how time consuming and stressful repetitive actions can be. Isn't there a easier way?

Yes, it's called AppleScript.

"Macintosh systems" sounds obsolete- most all instances of "Macintosh" on Apple.com, excluding deprecated pages or products, have been replaced with "Mac" now. And I'll bet I'm not the only one who thinks of infomercials when I read "Isn't there an easier way?".

I wouldn't be so critical of these tiny details if, overall, the subsite was an improvement- but obviously, it's not. Everything about it just feels incomplete- as if the site developers were rushing to get it out the door in time for Leopard (that would explain why the site debuted a few days late of the OS launch). It doesn't look right, and it doesn't read right, either.

Because Keeping Your Code Up-To-Date Is Important, Too

Finally, check out some of the meta keywords in the source code of the home page:

<META NAME="Keywords" CONTENT="Apple Computer, AppleScript, Hardware, Power Mac, Power Mac Server, PowerBook, iMac, iBook, iPod, AirPort, G4, Software, Operating Systems, Mac OS X, Mac OS 9, AppleWorks, QuickTime, WebObjects, iMovie, iPhoto, iTunes, iDVD, Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro, Cinema Tools, Remote Desktop">

iBook? G4? AppleWorks? Mac OS 9?

Update, 5:53 PM:

Richard Henry writes in with two more observations:

1. The dots on the sides of the main navigation bar, when clicked, will resize the window to narrow, or wide. In his words, "how 1999 is that?".
2. The Interface Builder icon in the top graphic is actually the considerably-dated one from Tiger, and not the redesigned Leopard one.

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¹ Interestingly, Final Cut Express, regarded as the "prosumer" version of Final Cut Pro, uses a "right-into-the-middle" gray for its page color scheme.  ^

² For web design nerds: this is a result of forgetting to specify in the HTML whether or not to draw a border; in WebKit-based browsers such as Safari (which is probably what the subsite developers used for testing), if a border is not specified, it won't draw one, but in Gecko-based browsers (i.e: Firefox), it will draw a default ugly one.  ^

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