Thank you for this remarkable AppleScript development environment! And enjoy your next adventure for your next 30 years! All the best.
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I have just gotten to the peak of my Script Debugger game in the last few years, so this is devastating to me. Does anyone have any suggestions for a Python IDE that is at least half as good as Script Debugger? I built my entire library of automation in this software. Iām ready to leave print, and Iām ready to never deal with Adobe ever again. I have a Bachelor of Science degree in Geography, with a significant amount of GIS experience and some Python experience. I want to stay in programming, but I donāt like most of how they do it these days. I donāt want to do Jira or Scrum or anything of the sort. I donāt mind working with other people, but I donāt want to be on a big software team. I work best on my own. This is kind of an existential moment for me, because Iām not that far from retirement, but Iām way too far to be able to walk away into early retirement. This is hurting my head, because I was hoping that I could keep my print production career churning with Script Debugger until retirement. Now I may need an entirely new plan.
Be cautious about JavaScript. Adobeās old ExtendScript is transitioning. Soon it will all be subsumed under UXP.
Also, I donāt know how it will be implemented under UXP, but ExtendScript made it incredibly complicated to make multiple application workflows. I used to have to write the scripts for each program separately and then āduct tapeā them together (and even then, it wasnāt always possible to do what AppleScript does EASILY).
Iām aware of this one, never tried (donāt have any experience with Python):
Thank you! I will look into this!
Apple (and most other OS companies) deserves serious scorn for neglecting user-focused automation. There was a reason that every computer used to be shipped with BASIC. Because everyone knew how to use it, and you could do nearly anything, given enough time. Not everything has to be compiled and optimized into some kind of origami puzzle. Sometimes, you can just procedurally solve your problems with properly devised conditional branching. This area of computing, which I have tended to call the āCitizen Programmerā, as itās just an aspect of the world we live in, and itās not that difficult to set up clear, simple systems for people to use to make these machines work for us. Now we have AI, but Iāve seen some of its solutions for problems. It is a great bionic arm, but itās pretty much as dumb as a stump for complete solution processes. I mastered BASIC in high school. When I tried to learn C++ in the early 90s, it just gave me a headache. It was TOO abstract, give such poor feedback, and required a whole different set of expertise to use well. A set of expertise that I had very little interest in because everything I needed to do could be done in BASIC. Iām trying to replace the space in my mind that Apple used to provide for me (an open environment with responsive tools, not to mention, my Apple II+ manual had a complete listing of the source code!). Iāve been transitioning to Linux, but there are no legitimate replacement for Adobe in Linux, and even ArcGIS wonāt run in Linux (maybe I could find someone using QGIS?). I used to be so good at computers. Script Debugger was exactly the tool that I could work with. I donāt see anything else in any computing domain that I might consider where I can hit the ground running. 
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As far as I understand, UXP is still based on JavaScript. In theory, existing ExtendScript scripts should run as is under UXP (or with some minor adjustments).
That may be the case. I havenāt heard that much about it, other than that some JavaScript people I know were concerned about it. Iām not sure how much it will change the ādelivery mechanismā, but at the very least, I did see that theyāre maintaining support for the old technologies for a transition period. To be completely honest, AppleScript has always had some frustrating limitations, not to mention inconsistencies. But the ScriptDebugger interface has been the best tool Iāve EVER used to develop software (and partially because the native language syntax makes it really easy for me to move quickly and to use an almost linguistic approach to programming). I used JavaScript for Windows at a company that used PCs, and I did appreciate the built in text manipulation functionality. But I really dislike the way JavaScript does loops. Itās just awkward. I want the field to settle down into some consistent ecosystem that has the right tools. All of what I call āBig Automationā these days is bogged down in overly complex systems that require really slow development processes. Things that I could change in an AppleScript in a week seem to take these companies three to six months. Not to mention, theyāre billing excessive hours at high cost for their software engineers to implement even the smallest changes. I can do anything I have to do for my profession in ScriptDebugger. I canāt say that about anything else yet. I do not want to go back to JavaScript. I wish there was a Python interface for Adobe.
I dislike any language that doesnāt have named parameters. I acknowledge that JS is sure powerful and, most importantly, cross-platform. But itās a barbarian language.
I am definitely not a fan of JavaScript! 
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Script Debugger Has Been Retired:
Iām not a labeled parameters kind of guy, butā¦
honorTheHomies of "Late Night Software" since "they Rock" with respect
to honorTheHomies of theBusiness since theyRock with respect
display dialog "Pouring out a Guiness for everyone at " & theBusiness & ". Nothing but " & respect & " respect." with title "Retiring Script Debugger" with icon stop buttons {"Say it ain't so", "Damn"} default button "Say it ain't so" cancel button "Damn" giving up after 536870911
end honorTheHomies
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Daring Fireball:
Michael Tsai:
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2025/01/01/retiring-script-debugger
Mac Power Users:
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You may be interested to know that there is an excellent Python-Apple Event (i.e. AppleScript-like) bridge called AppScript created & maintained by @hhas01 that allows you to do essentially everything you could do from AppleScript in Python.
Hereās a link to the projectās homepage with lots of documentation and examples.
The project is available on the official Python Package Index (the latest version from Oct 2024 does not have a project description on PyPI, but itās provided for some previous versions).
When I moved to macOS in 2012, I had to decide between learning AppleScript or using Python-AppScript. I ended up going the AppleScript route for a few reasons, but firstly because in 2012 there was a disclaimer that AppScript would not have ongoing releases. This ended up not being the case.
The AppScript project had other language variants, including Ruby & Objective-C, that have been abandoned, but the Python project is getting regular releases & has been in use for decades at this point.
The author also has a Swift-Apple Event bridge called SwiftAutomation that Iāve been following with great interest, but it doesnāt seem to be in active development & Swift has undergone a lot of changes in the meantime.
I had really hoped that Apple would get their act together & do something with Swift to better support scripting & controlling other applications, but it has not. There have been some attempts that have sadly not gone anywhere.
Yeah, nothing but serious disappointment with Apple. I got my first Apple computer in 1981 and have been a loyal customer since, building my whole professional career around graphic design and production. The level of complete negligence over the last 10 or 15 years as they basically decided to become an overpriced phone and spyware company has been extremely demoralizing. Itās not getting better. Theyāre trying to make programmers into some kind of elite corporate tools, and itās working. These people could care less about the users, except to extract their software subscriptions. I wish I was old enough to retire, but I have to figure out how to survive the next ten years or so without any functional tools that I once had complete mastery of. It is seriously depressing. I will look into the Python Apple Event bridge, but I think itās all over for me at this point, at least as far as Apple is concerned. I still use a MacBook, but as much as Iām able, Iām shifting to Linux.
āPlease note that appscript is no longer developed or supported, and its use is not recommended for new projects.ā
How did we get here? Why could I do 10x more productive work 20 years ago? Why did all the tools get taken away?
Thatās what I mentioned in my earlier post ā the old documentation site says it is no longer developed or supported, but on PyPI the development status is given as āProduction/Stableā. The author still actively develops & releases it. See the release history.
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I also was really hoping, around 2014-2015, that Swift might bring some coherence to Appleās programming roadmap, but Iāve watched that language become brittle and fragmented over the years. It didnāt really seem to solve the problems that it was intended to solve, and then Lattner left. I mean, building your programming roadmap around compiler optimizations is literally insane. The bureaucracy has gotten so thick, thatās itās all focused-group commercialized garbage at this point. Itās so depressing. Maybe Iām just feeling the weight of EVERY SINGLE THING I SEE HAPPENING IN THE WORLD RIGHT NOW!
Oh great! I thought for a second that it had changed since you lasted looked! I will definitely look deeper when I get a minute!