AppleScript Shell

tell application "Finder" set theSelection to selection set n to number of items in theSelection -echo "number of items selected: " & n repeat with i from 1 to n -echo "item " & i & " is " & (item i of theSelection as alias) end repeat end tell

Highlighted by kamiura

Features

• Interactive execution of AppleScript commands
• Handles multi-line commands (e.g. 'tell') by going into a mode - current mode is indicated by the prompt
• Subroutines (starting with "on" or "to") and script objects (starting with "script") are persistent and thus are available for use in any subsequent interactive command
• Can be used as the " shebang" interpreter for stand-alone scripts that run non-interactively. The "shebang" line for such scripts would be: #!/usr/bin/env ash
  (assuming that the 'ash' script is in your PATH) You can also execute files of AppleScript commands by supplying the filenames on the command-line when you invoke 'ash'.
• The "-source" command can be used to execute the commands in a file (like the 'source' command in 'tcsh' and 'bash') This is especially useful for bringing in subroutine definitions.
• The "-echo" command can be used to output the values of AppleScript expressions - this is especially useful for debugging. For example:

      tell application "Finder"
          set theSelection to selection
          set n to number of items in theSelection
          -echo "number of items selected: " & n
          repeat with i from 1 to n
              -echo "item " & i & " is " & (item i of theSelection as alias)
          end repeat
      end tell
  

• The "-abbrev" command allows creation of abbreviations for commonly used phrases
• The "-show" command displays the current AppleScript
• The "-editor" command sends the current AppleScript to Apple's "Script Editor"
• The "-rerun" command reruns the most recently executed AppleScript
• The "-batch" command allows a bunch of AppleScript commands to be batched up for later execution
• The "-read" command can be used to read from the keyboard into an AppleScript variable.
• The "-cd", "-pwd", "-ls" commands operate like the standard shell commands.
• The "-!" escape can be used to run an arbitrary Unix command.
• The "-createMan" command generates a 'man page' file for 'ash'.
• You can use the "-oneoff" command-line option to have 'ash' automatically exit after running one (interactively supplied) AppleScript command.
• You can enable a "trace facility" for the execution of your AppleScripts via the "-trace" option. In trace mode, the execution pauses after each AppleScript statement and displays the result from the previously executed statement.
• More detailed usage information is available via the "-help" command.

Highlighted by joshvh