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I would like Adobe ExtendScript back, who's with me?

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
August 19, 2021
3 replies
5108 views

Hope you agree.

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Correct answer Bruce Bullis

Your concerns are valid. I loved ESTK too.

It's dead, and is not coming back.

I'm sure you're aware that all Adobe applications are moving from extensibility based on ExtendScript + CEP, to extensibility based on JavaScript + UXP; some have already moved. This makes additional investment in ESTK even less likely.

Ugly? Perhaps. It's also very customizable. You can make comments appear in Comic Sans, just like ESTK did, if you like.

Not native? Okay, but literally hundreds of PPro partners use VSCode + ExtendScript Debugger on Windows and Mac ARM systems, every day, without issue.

PITA to use? Perhaps; your mileage may vary. I prefer the debug configuration options the ExtendScript Debugger provides, over ESTK's old target selection pop-up.

XCode on Mac? Adobe partners require a cross-platform solution.

The VSCode ExtendScript Debugger running in VSCode is, admittedly, an imperfect solution; it is also the path forward.

L

Lumigraphics

Legend

Year and a half later, still desperately need an omv file parser and Apple Silicon-native extensions.

VSCode is ugly, not a native Mac app, a PITA to use (had to turn off pretty much everything "helpful" in the Text Editor) and my preference would be to use XCode on the Mac. :sigh: ESTK had a lot of problems too but what we have now isn't much better.

Bruce BullisCorrect answer

Legend

Your concerns are valid. I loved ESTK too.

It's dead, and is not coming back.

I'm sure you're aware that all Adobe applications are moving from extensibility based on ExtendScript + CEP, to extensibility based on JavaScript + UXP; some have already moved. This makes additional investment in ESTK even less likely.

Ugly? Perhaps. It's also very customizable. You can make comments appear in Comic Sans, just like ESTK did, if you like.

Not native? Okay, but literally hundreds of PPro partners use VSCode + ExtendScript Debugger on Windows and Mac ARM systems, every day, without issue.

PITA to use? Perhaps; your mileage may vary. I prefer the debug configuration options the ExtendScript Debugger provides, over ESTK's old target selection pop-up.

XCode on Mac? Adobe partners require a cross-platform solution.

The VSCode ExtendScript Debugger running in VSCode is, admittedly, an imperfect solution; it is also the path forward.

L

Lumigraphics

Legend

All of my scripts are pure Extendscript, no CEP or UXP. I've done web development in the dim and distant past, at some point I have to jump into UXP and see how it works.

These days there is UXP Scripting for Photoshop. You might want to check that out, as Photoshop will eventually remove ExtendScript: https://developer.adobe.com/photoshop/uxp/2022/scripting/

I'm not sure if you have any pull...

I think @Bruce Bullis has some pull with my team...

...but I will suggest that someone in Adobe's dev tools/evangalism team swing through the Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, and Acrobat forums and ask for scripters to give feedback. I bet you'd get a load of good comments. There is also ps-scripts.com where some of the more knowledgeable folks can be found.

😅 As a dev tools/evangelism team member, I assure you I am monitoring those forums (OK, not the Acrobat one, that's out of my purview) and have been fore about 5 years now. I've been interviewing developers for the last 6 months with our team's executive to gather feedback.

Action Manager is one of the APIs for Photoshop, along with the DOM. A LOT of what scripters can do in PS requires Action Manager and documentation is almost non-existent.

If you're still using Action Manager code via ScriptListener I have good news!!

These days you can use batchPlay and a free third-party extension called Alchemist to listen for events and output more useful code. The Alchemist developer and people using these tools hang out in our new UXP-focused developer fourms.

You could write a stand-alone OMV parser. Its XML. We really could use it.

I spent a chunk of time last year coordinating putting InDesign's OMV on a webpage here. We translated it from XML to Gatsby and it kind of broke things on the backend, and it isn't perfect. Gregor has an InDesign OMV site he's been maintaining for years.

I've been trying to drum up the funding to both:

1. Get the VSCode Debugger working on M1 and

2. Add an OMV parser to the thing

However, at the moment internal teams are not resourced to work on anything other than the latest and greatest initiatives; there's not a lot of time or resources left to maintain tools that we're actively trying to replace.

You'll have a revolt if you kill Extendscript on Photoshop. Oh boy. A LOT of people rely on it in production. I do get the shift to UXP, but for those of us who aren't dedicated developers, we just need something that's easy to use and works. I'm first and foremost a working professional photographer, not a developer. I don't want to write a complete plug-in for simple stuff that I need automated.

For example, I maintain product photos, some of which have text overlaid. I was easily able to write a script to do find/replace on thousands of PSD files, with a couple dozen lines of code. Writing and packaging a UXP plugin just for that seems overkill and would be a huge waste of my time. I have other utility scripts that are just a few lines long. Those of us who actually work in these apps NEED that kind of functionality.

I have seen mentions of Alchemist, if I ever have spare time to learn more/new coding I'll jump into UXP. I also want to find the time to learn Swift for macOS and iOS coding but again, not enough hours. And I use Lightroom Classic for my freelance/hobby business so I want to do some things in Lua... :sigh:

Eventually, Intel will be gone on Mac and Rosetta 2 deprecated. Hopefully the toolchain is native by then.

Nancy OShea

Community Expert

ExtendScript is obsolete and unsupported. And the Toolkit won't work on modern Macs because it's so old. But you don't need permission to keep using ExtendScript. There's an extension for it for Visual Studio Code.

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=Adobe.extendscript-debug

[Moderator moved from The Lounge to Coding Corner.]

Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert

studiovanzwetAuthor

Participating Frequently

I know and I have it installed, but I like ExtendScript Toolkit beter, aspecialy the Object Model Viewer. Why not make a new version that runs on newer Macs? Is there a solution not to type te name of your script every time you run debug in VS Code extension?

Nancy OShea

Community Expert

I don't work for Adobe. No one here does. But I suppose it's because ES Toolkit is ancient. And Apple has ended support for 32-bit apps. It's hardly worth throwing time & money at an old FREE app that few people use anymore.

When you need to keep using old apps, you should keep an old computer or virtual machine on hand that can support them. Also never upgrade that machine's OS.

Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert

Peru Bob

Community Expert

I've moved this from the Using the Community forum (which is the forum for issues using the forums) to the Lounge forum.

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