I am a very experienced Indesign Applescript developer. My javascript is currently weak, but I used to be quite comfortable 20 years ago. The main reason I use Applescript for Indesign is interactivity between other apps and because of the robust output from ScriptDebugger by Late Night Software. There are, however, many ways in which Javascript is more elegant, and there is some functionality that Applescript simply does not have.
So far, with Javascript and $.writeln (x), I can fidget around and find a specific result if I know exactly what I’m looking for, but with ScriptDebugger, I could do something as simple as set a variable to a selection and see all of that object references properties at once, including drilling down to the paragraph style, applied GREP, bullets, numbering…anything. All at one time. And, setting multiple variables throughout a script returns that data for EVERY variable, neatly bundled up and easy to navigate. I rely on this data as part of my workflow. I know there must be comparable solutions, but I can’t find elegant ways to quickly return massive amounts of formatted data using other code editors or Extendscript Toolkit. This may be a specific question for someone who has made the transition, but can someone point me in the right direction?
Thanks in advance.
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