The Console
& the Matrix

-- a line comment
(* a block comment:
   spans many lines *)

set greeting to "Hello"
set who to "world"
set message to greeting & ", " & who & "!"

display dialog message          -- pops a window
return message                      --> "Hello, world!"

-- LISTS are 1-indexed, ordered
set primes to {2, 3, 5, 7, 11}
set first to item 1 of primes     --> 2
set last  to last item of primes    --> 11
set howMany to count of primes       --> 5
set end of primes to 13            -- append → {2,3,5,7,11,13}

-- RECORDS are key:value (unordered)
set person to {name:"Ada", born:1815, active:true}
set n to name of person             --> "Ada"

-- COERCION with `as`
set x to "42" as integer            --> 42  (text → integer)
set s to 3.14 as text              --> "3.14"
set joined to {"a", "b", "c"} as text  -- uses text item delimiters

set csv to "red,green,blue"

-- SPLIT: set delimiter, read text items
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ","
set parts to text items of csv   --> {"red","green","blue"}

-- JOIN: set delimiter, coerce list → text
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to " | "
set joined to parts as text     --> "red | green | blue"

-- ALWAYS reset delimiters afterwards (they're global!)
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ""

set score to 82

if score ≥ 90 then
    set grade to "A"
else if score ≥ 80 then
    set grade to "B"
else
    set grade to "C or below"
end if

-- repeat a fixed number of times
repeat 3 times
    beep
end repeat

-- counted loop
set total to 0
repeat with i from 1 to 100
    set total to total + i
end repeat                              -- total = 5050

-- iterate over a list
repeat with fruit in {"apple", "pear", "plum"}
    log (fruit as text)        -- log → Script Editor's log pane
end repeat

-- conditional loop
set n to 10
repeat while n > 0
    set n to n - 1
end repeat

-- positional parameters
on circleArea(r)
    return 3.14159265 * r * r
end circleArea

set a to circleArea(5)            --> 78.539816...

-- a handler that filters a list
on evensIn(aList)
    set out to {}
    repeat with x in aList
        if (x mod 2) = 0 then set end of out to (x as integer)
    end repeat
    return out
end evensIn

evensIn({1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6})         --> {2, 4, 6}

-- labeled parameters read like English
on greet someone given loudly:isLoud
    set msg to "Hi " & someone
    if isLoud then set msg to msg & "!!!"
    return msg
end greet

greet "Grace" given loudly:true     --> "Hi Grace!!!"

-- Ask Finder how many items are on the desktop
tell application "Finder"
    set n to count (every item of desktop)
    set whereAmI to name of home
end tell

-- Get the URL of Safari's front tab
tell application "Safari"
    set u to URL of current tab of front window
end tell

-- Speak text and put something on the clipboard
say "Build complete" using "Samantha"
set the clipboard to "copied by a script"

-- UI scripting: click a menu when an app isn't scriptable
tell application "System Events"
    tell process "TextEdit"
        click menu item "New" of menu "File" of menu bar 1
    end tell
end tell

try
    set x to "not a number" as integer   -- this fails
on error errMsg number errNum
    display dialog "Failed: " & errMsg & " (#" & errNum & ")"
end try

-- Borrow the power of the shell
set today to do shell script "date +%Y-%m-%d"
set files to do shell script "ls -1 ~/Documents | wc -l"
display dialog "On " & today & " you have " & files & " documents."