OT: 10.4 "Automator" = Applescript?

[Howard Bornstein]

This is from an email correspondence I had with the Engineering Manager of
Automator at Apple in September of 2004:

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There have been some discussions about the various ways to interact with
Applescript on the Revolution listserv. Since Automator is a high-level
interface for Applescript, I wanted to find out if the applescript it 
generates
is actually available? That is, is the actual applescript code viewable and
accessible?

>> This is inaccurate.  Automator could be described as a high-level 
>> interface for scripting or automation, but it's not tied to 
>> AppleScript.
>>
>> Automator does not generate an AppleScript to represent the entire 
>> workflow. Each action is a separate bundle executed independently by 
>> the Automator engine.

Is the actual applescript code viewable and accessible?

>> An individual action may be backed by an AppleScript (many use no 
>> AppleScript at all), but the way we are planning to ship them, a 
>> customer wouldn't have access to the script.  It is a compiled 
>> script with the script source removed.
>> This would allow a script-savvy application to execute the script, 
>> but not view it, so it would be accessible, but not viewable.  But 
>> without the surrounding infrastructure of the action bundle, the 
>> script alone might not help you too much.  You'd have to reimplement 
>> what's in the surrounding bundle.

Since Revolution can execute applescript directly, it seems that the 
combination
of Revolution and Automator could be very powerful. Build inter-application
processes with Automator and include these in a more robust Revolution
application.

>> This is doable, but it has little to do with AppleScript.  
>> Revolution would need to learn how to load and execute action 
>> bundles, which is easy to do using Cocoa.
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Regards,

Howard Bornstein