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Explore

Most scripting projects begin with a tour of the target application’s dictionary. Script Debugger offers the most complete, rich, and understandable dictionary view of any tool available today—by itself, enough to make it stand out as the premier tool for scripters. It’s not enough to display the most comprehensive dictionary information because, for many, the major obstacle to successful script completion is discovering exactly how to address an application’s attributes. Script Debugger’s unique capability to present every detail of this information, precisely as AppleScript itself would, bridges that gap.

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Make Sense of Dictionaries

Script Debugger’s Dictionary browser makes exploring dictionaries easier by offering powerful navigation and the most comprehensive information display possible. Navigate a dictionary by Suites, Commands, Events, Classes, Records, Enumerations and Types depending on what’s needed. Easier access to a dictionary’s terms is only part of what Script Debugger provides—the display of the terms themselves provides unparalleled depth.  Script Debugger analyzes every facet of dictionaries, giving even more context by providing hyper-linked cross-references: where the terms are used, what the subclasses of terms are, what terms are inherited and from where, as well as additional documentation (when supplied by developers). Explore relationships between elements and easily get definitions of terms used and find where data types/classes/records or enumerations are used. No other scripting tool creates the sorts of links and cross-references that Script Debugger does when it analyzes dictionaries and creates this additional content on the fly. All installed Scripting Additions are available to scripts simultaneously and only Script Debugger presents their dictionaries in a unified view.

Script Debugger embraces the latest features of AppleScript while continuing to support legacy data. Mac OS X’s new sdef dictionary format allows developers to add expanded documentation and sample code to the dictionaries of their applications. It promises much more usable scripting dictionaries and the benefits will only increase as more developers adopt it. At the same time, Script Debugger extracts as much information as possible from old-style (‘aete’) dictionaries.

It’s even possible to customize how the Dictionaries are displayed. Script Debugger provides another unique depiction of the hierarchy of dictionaries with the Diagram view. This arranges the information graphically in a ‘tree’ or flowchart-like display.

Even accessing various dictionaries is easier than before. Open them with the hierarchical Open menu—with divisions for the most common dictionaries, those of currently running applications and those of known applications. Alternatively, open dictionaries from the known applications inspector or even from a contextual menu in a script. Make sure favorite applications are always accessible by adding them to the known applications inspector.

Powerful Searching

Locate the exact information needed using Script Debugger’s powerful ‘Search Term’ command to search within the current dictionary. Find just the information related to particular Suites, Commands, Events, Classes, Records, Enumerations and Types, or parts of dictionary entries such as Names, Descriptions, Synonyms and Apple Event Codes. View Functions and Commands of every known application, even those not currently running. Open a Dictionary with selected function or command highlighted.

Understand Running Applications

Script Debugger’s unique value extends far beyond the dictionary display. With its one-of-a-kind Explorer, determine precisely how AppleScript itself views every aspect of what applications provide and how changes are reflected. Not only does Script Debugger display this information, it also allows its alteration, live, in the running application that the script targets. Furthermore, ‘learn by doing’ because the Explorer permits altering values inside Script Debugger and reflects changes made to running applications outside of a script. Quickly determine how to refer to an element—the Explorer will display every name for a specifier and provide an easy way to choose the one needed.

Quickly and easily focus on application properties or elements that your script uses and experiment with changes. Access this information at any point during a script’s execution. Determine at a glance which values have changed because the Explorer highlights changes in red. Tighten focus and simplify the view as needed—double-click any item in a viewer and it appears in a new viewer window. Script Debugger intelligently displays information in its most native form, such as a picture for image data and a movie for QuickTime (instead of raw data). The Explorer appears throughout Script Debugger—employ it the same way everywhere that it appears.

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