maybe this was the wrong place to post this? Seems like everyone is dealing with installation issues here. I still haven't found justification for using scriptographer over the scripting engine. Especially now that they have extendscript. My work is not made by hand so the mouse tools have limited usefullness to me. It is also a little unclear what parts of the scriptographer javascript are duplicated from the scripting engine.

Anyway, it was 17 days ago that I asked a question and could have used some help. Slightly annoyed.

It's a bit unclear what you need help with (and I guess I missed your earlier posting).

I use Scriptographer every day for my work, using its support for java libraries to bring in data from mysql databases, working with NLP and other things. And I do tend to use the hand tools too.. Haven't noticed any speed problems - what are you using Scriptographer for? It would be easier to talk if we knew what you want to do..

(There is no justification to be slightly annoyed - we all have busy jobs, and Juerg is basically doing scriptographer on his own at the moment)

Thank you both for your quick reply. I apologize for my grumpiness about not getting any response.

I am an artist who uses programming. I used to be a designer but have all but ceased doing that. That is to say that I am not a programmer. Non-programmers don't know with what they need help. Now that I hear responses to my half baked questions I realize that what I was asking was "Should I delve deeper into Scripto' or just use the scripting engine?"

I think that you both answered very well considering the malformed query. I've gathered:
1) Scriptographer has support for java libraries (no more need be said)
2) As I thought, Scripto' is faster than the Scripting engine (I wrote the same code in both and Scripto' 'seemed' faster. Thanks for confirming this.
3) As I thought, AI's scripting engine is a pain. Sometimes a newbie needs to know if the code he is trying to wrangle is about to work or if he will be endlessly chasing details.

I have come from writing PostScript to draw images. I really just use math and loops but the speed of the interpreters started to be an issue. I was toying with writing Python to generate paths only, but I think that will be similarly slow since I can't possibly beat the speed of AI's preview. I am interested in making some reusable code so I can call custom made functions. Also PostScript's stack has just officially pissed me off. I want to take my pieces into OOP.

I was not saying anyone was not doing enough. Obviously I am incredibly indebted to both juerg and the community here. I was just struggling with why I would use one approach over another. It seems that this is really behind most questions "Is langX better than langY". Thanks again for the clarification.

Excuse me, I must go RTFM.

gabriel

Hi Gabriel,

Don't worry about the grumpiness, I can understand the frustration of not getting an answer... And please excuse my late chiming in. Just like Jonathan, I missed your first post, despite the RSS subscription to the forum.

I just wrote a long text explaining my position regarding Adobe's engine and all, just to accidentally loose it again by loading another URL in the same browser window. That will teach me to use an external editor for everything from now on.

I will give it another try later today, as it is important for other users to learn about these things. I probably start to write a proper FAQ page.

But good to see that you seem convinced Scriptographer is the way to go now ;)