GREAT article by Ars. A pretty solid and long overdue introduction to the real power features of OS X. Automator, Services, and AppleScript are excellent tools that dont really have a parallel or analogue in Windows.
I recently switched to Mac OS X as my primary desktop operating system after spending over a decade on Linux. Although Apple's operating system supplies practically all of the command line tools I know and love, I want to spend less time in a terminal window and start cultivating workflows that integrate better with the Mac user experience.
In my quest to tear the power of the command line out of the terminal, I have found that Apple's Automator tool is a powerful ally. Although it's not as mighty as the command line for improvisational automation, it's useful for defining stand-alone operations that you want to be able to repeat. I've used Automator over the past week to build simple applications that replace some of my personal shell scripts.
One of the most compelling features of Automator is support for building servicesheadless applications that are pervasively accessible throughout the operating system. Many services are context-sensitive and designed to process or operate on user input. A brief and unscientific poll of Mac enthusiasts revealed that few actually use the Services menu. Despite its relative obscurity among users, I've learned to appreciate its value.
Apple offers a number of its own serviceslike one that supports dictionary lookup on a selected wordthat work with the platform's standard applications. Third-party developers can also create services to deploy with their applications. Automator makes it really easy for regular end users to create their own services with specialized behaviors.
As a Linux refugee, one of the features that makes Automator particularly compelling is that it allows me to integrate command-line operations, commands, and pipelines into my Automator workflows. In this tutorial, I'm going to show you two of the ways that I use shell scripting in Automator services in order to simplify my work.