[Doug Nelson]

I was reading the Photoshop scripting guide today (slow day) and noticed that it never mentions VbScript, even though it's a scripting guide. It only talks about Visual Basic.

Does VbScript even exist anymore? Is it the same thing as Visual Basic nowadays? Did .Net swallow it all up along with VBA?

[Richard_Lynch]

I use VB to write scripts for processing some simple word events on the PC. It exists alright.

if we are looking at the same CS docs, there is a bunch of stuff in the dedicated doc for VB, but it is more-or-less a listing of codes.

the doc I found most helpful was the JS doc. Also, as I tend to learn this way, I liked looking at the samples provided by adobe.

I've used JS to program in an interface -- regretfully i am having a little problem getting buttons to behave...

Did I answer the wrong question?

[Doug Nelson]

You got me digging a little deeper, and I found the section on differences between Visual Basic and VbScript.

Javascript makes the most pragmatic sense, since scripts can then be shared between OSs, but it's also the most opaque.

[Richard_Lynch]

You can still do some pretty cool stuff with java...even if you can't go outside Photoshop. There are a lot of interface enhancements possible...not immediately apparent, perhaps, in how they work. But like the old filter factory, you can actually build new components (and then record an action and assign an F key to open them up). You'll see one in a day or two.

I succeeded in opening the can of worms, and now i'll have to make some interface components to simplify working with tools by another design.

javaScript can call a VB or AS behavior. i haven't been digging there, but it would seem a good fit to most problems as you'd only have to build the VB and AS components in the spots where they are needed to look outside Photoshop.

but what about extracting XML? i see nothing documented on metadata (or almost as little).

Sorry to fail the distinction between VbScript and VB. I was assuming them to be fairly similar beasts.

[Doug Nelson]

Go to the MS VbScript homepage and read the part about launching scripts from HTML, then ponder on PScs's new HTML help authoring feature.

Seems to me there's some big potential there.

[Richard_Lynch]

That sounds pretty interesting. I am also wondering about how those menus are stuck together, and if there might not be a way to build an interface for a tutorial rather than jumping out to a browser. Might be the wrong way to go, but could also be an interesting direction for keeping the users in one program, rather than jaunting about...

[Doug Nelson]

Of course, on the JS front, I downloaded Russel Brown's sample CS script from the Expert Center. It demonstrates CS's new JS UI builder. There's also a movie, but it's 15 meg, and only demonstrates the script, not how he wrote it.

The new UI is cool, but you still have to write everything in a text editor, even building the interface.

I just installed Visual Basic, and it already knew all the Photoshop methods and commands!

[Richard_Lynch]

But your VB won't translate to mac...and I tend to think not only for my good, but for transferring on platforms. if I can write in JS, I can make it work at home (Mac) and at work (PC). There may be other ramifications for Elements...Though I've yet to try that out.