Rating: 
Summary: do not buy it
Review: the book is a mess - to verbose and no threats. i am sorry to say that - i read a lot of books about programming languages - but here you find no structure and anything well formed. it feels that the author is permanently showing of what he can do with it without encouraging the reader. he just jumps from one to the other. he might know very well what he is doing but the book just causes a headache. if you browse thru all the chapters you might get what i mean - it looks ugly and crowing - some illustrations here, screen shots there but nothing like syntax rules or formal semantics what gives the professional programmer an applicable overview. The original AppleScript Introduction or Guide on Apple's site should just be updated and extended.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: This book is a true disappointment in the realm of scripting books. First of all, this book repeats the same examples over and over again, providing very little light on new topics and ideas. This book is great for someone that has no real interest in doing anything powerful with Applescript. If you want to just dabble in program control and finder tricks, it works...but for the price so does Learn Applescript in 24 Hours
Rating: 
Summary: Very good core guide
Review: This book isn't all things for all people. Applescript is a tough language. Each software package defines it's own objects and properties. It would be nice to find a book that shows examples of the exact things that you want to do yourself, but that is hard to find. I am scripting Quark XPress, Acrobat Distiller and using perl to communicate through the web with these applications. Where would I find a book that would match those requirements? This book helped me understand how to poke around and use references to target applications and objects to make it do what I want it to do. I have a much better understanding of the core aspects of the language by reading this book and it covers those aspects better than any book I have seen.It did a good job of showing how to use shell scripts and perl scripts to embed osascript commands and vice versa. It also showed how in OS X you can target System Events rather than the finder to get a lot of things done. I learned how to make Applescript humm along at a faster pace than I had before. It did a good job of explaining the key words like result and return. Although, I would like to have a companion book that is an example book, I wouldn't trade this book for another one on Applescript. I've already been through it twice, and I keep it by my side when I am scripting. This is indeed, "The Definitive guide." Although amazon doesn't have a look inside book here, [the oreilly website] has the variables chapter in pdf available online. That may help you get a feel for if this is the right book for you.
Rating:
Summary: Buy This Book!
Review: This is an excellent book by a gifted writer. Neuburg has the ability to understand AppleScript at a deep level, and then communicate that understanding clearly and coherently. The coherence of his approach brings the novice along with the text while keeping the expert engaged by virtue of passing on little known facts, strategies for dealing with Applescript's eccentricities and frustrations, and amusing and important asides.
One chapter that struck me as indicative of Neuburg's strengths comes early in the text and deals with a real life scripting challenge that he had to meet in the course of producing the book. Beginning very simply he shows the reader how he worked through the process of making a script that would interact with the program FrameMaker: gathering information about the book's illustrations, listing the illustrations in a very particular order and renaming all the illustration files in a way that was mandated by the publisher. We readers can observe the habits of thought, learn some of the peculiarities of AppleScript, and follow the methodology of an experienced scripter as Neuburg works through this process of learning how to speak to FrameMaker to achieve the result he needs. By the end we are looking at, and understanding, a complicated and effective script.
The subsequent chapters that deal with the building blocks of AppleScript and the ways to combine them into increasingly powerful tools are written clearly and with a good humor and comraderie that make learning about AppleScript quite enjoyable for this reader. I highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: The Best
Review: To keep it short and sweet--if you have any interest in learning or using AppleScript, get this book. It is the book Apple should have put out years ago.
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