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What's New In Script Debugger 4.5

Improved Editing

• The editor now fully supports Unicode on Leopard systems. Unicode text will be properly retained when scripts are compiled or opened, allowing you to include text in multiple languages and alphabets within your scripts.
• Script Debugger now ‘auto-saves’ recovery information whenever you execute a script. Should AppleScript, Script Debugger or a Scripting Addition crash, Script Debugger will recover the script the next time it’s launched, preventing the loss of valuable work.
• Script length limitations removed on Leopard systems. Script Debugger would previously lose its ability to display AppleScript formatting for long scripts (>3000 lines). This limitation no longer exists when running on a Leopard system.
• You can now split the editor vertically and/or horizontally. This lets you view and edit multiple sections of a script at the same time, enabling you to easily spot changes or similarities.
• The Find & Replace panel now provides Regular Expression searching using the ICU Regular Expression engine. This lets you perform powerful Regular Expression-based finds and text substitutions on your scripts without resorting to an external text editor.
• The editor now automatically closes AppleScript block structures as you type. If you type ‘repeat with i from 1 to 10’ followed by Return, for example, Script Debugger will automatically insert the matching ‘end’ statement, allowing you to enter AppleScript block structures more quickly.
• The editor now provides a Text Substitution feature that allows short keywords to be replaced with boilerplate code as you type. Typing ‘dd’, followed by a space, for example, causes ‘display dialog "message"’ to be inserted with ‘message’ selected. You can define your own text substitutions to suit your scripting environment.
• The editor now automatically closes parentheses and quotes as you type, making it easier to enter string literals, lists and records into your script.
• Script Debugger 3.0’s 'Edit with BBEdit' command has been reintroduced and now works with Bare Bones Software’s BBEdit and TextWrangler or with MacroMate’s TextMate text editors. This command lets you temporarily transfer a script to one of these editors to take advantage of their powerful features.
• The new Text Completion command includes explicitly declared identifiers from the script (handler names, global variable names, property names, script object names, local variable names, and variables appearing in ‘repeat with’blocks) and terms from the AppleScript, Scripting Additions, and current tell context dictionaries. Handler name completion includes parameters, allowing you to quickly enter terms as they are editing a script.
• A warning panel now appears when Script Debugger is about to launch applications to complete a Look Up Definition search. You can choose which applications to launch, thereby avoiding delays while applications launch as well as consumption of memory.
• When opening a script that may cause the launch of applications, Script Debugger now offers you the choice of opening the script or recovering its plain text source to avoid the delay in launching applications.
• Major improvements made to the UI for Editing Libraries include: a new popup button listing the libraries in Script Debugger’s Application Support/Libraries folder, making it possible to add libraries without going through the Open File panel; the ‘Relative To’ popup in the Add Library open panel now changes directories to match the relative path chosen; and the libraries toolbar button in the script window now offers a popup listing the libraries in Script Debugger’s Application Support/Libraries folder. This makes the management of libraries associated with a script vastly more efficient.
• Balance command now handles compound statements (tell x to y, if x then y), and balances string literals and comments, making it a more reliable tool for selecting blocks that can then be moved, copied or deleted.
• Added TextMate’s Command-Return behavior that inserts a new line after the current line regardless of where the insertion point is within the line.

Improved Debugging

• You can now invoke a script’s ‘on open’ handler using a ‘tell document x to open {file 1, file 2}’ statement from another Script Debugger script window. ‘On open’ events are added to the Event History menus so that they can be quickly recalled from the UI.
• Script results and View windows can now display Unicode strings (related to the Editor’s Unicode improvements), allowing you to more easily debug scripts that work with strings written in various languages and alphabets.
• You can now invoke subroutines in a script via the scripting interface: ‘tell document x to subroutineName(p1, p2)’. Subroutine call events are added to the Event History menus so that they can be quickly recalled from the UI.
• New optional toolbar buttons have been added to toggle the Break On Breakpoints and Break On Exceptions debugger settings.
• Value view now handles application references using the typeApplicationBundleID AEDesc.

Improved Dictionary Window

• Script Debugger provides expanded and improved documentation for AppleScript’s built-in data types, helping novices understand AppleScript’s built-in data types. Experienced users can more easily recall the terms that AppleScript’s built-in types offer.
• Scripting Additions browser now shows the location of Scripting Additions via icons in the browser. This lets you easily figure out where a Scripting Addition is installed on your Macintosh.
• Sections in the dictionary display are collapsible, allowing you to hide dictionary information that is not relevant to your task.
• Improved the performance of the code that generates the Open Dictionary submenu.
• Application and Scripting Additions dictionaries can be viewed in multiple windows (Dictionary>Open In New Window Command).

Other Major Improvements

• Script Debugger 4.5 is scriptable. The scripting interface allows scripts to create, edit, compile, execute and save script documents. The scripting interface also lets you invoke event handlers and subroutine handlers in other script windows.
• New Scripts menu and inspector have been added where you can place scripts that drive Script Debugger. Key bindings can be assigned to scripts for frequently used operations. The new Scripts menu and inspector support OSA scripts, applications, Unix scripts (sh, ruby perl, etc.) and Automator workflows. You can use the Scripts menu/inspector to run a wide variety of scripts that take full advantage of Mac OS X.
• User configurable Command Keys bindings. This let you define command key shortcuts for comments that you use frequently. It also allows you to change or remove command key shortcuts provided by Script Debugger. Command Keys bindings can also be assigned to clippings or scripts.
• Added Quick Look support. This lets you view the source of your scripts without having to open the script in Script Debugger. It also allows you to avoid launching applications that may need to be running in order to view the script in Script Debugger.
• Reveal in Finder command added (File>Reveal in Finder), works with script documents, dictionaries and browser values that refer to files/folders.
• Spotlight importer improvements to better handle scripts with bad HFS file types and to correctly index bundled scripts and applets/droplets.

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