Exponential Slowdown of Applescript

applescriptmail.appscript

So I've been working on a simple AppleScript to try to help with managing my e-mail in OS X's Mail, and I have it seemingly working just fine with one major problem; the performance of the script is horrible.

Now, I know AppleScript isn't always the fastest scripting language, but I'm just not sure why the performance is as bad as it is. Even stranger, the length of time to complete each operation in a loop appears to be increasing over time! For example, my script should match about 300 e-mails (processed from a list totalling around 500), after five minutes it will match around 100 e-mails, but after twenty it will only have matched around 125, having slowed down to the point that it takes nearly a minute to process each e-mail, and continues to get worse until the script eventually finishes after about three hours.

Here's a simplified version of the script:

set ignoreTheseMailboxes to { "Inbox", "Drafts", "Junk", "Sent", "Trash" }
set expiryDate to (current date) - (45 * days) as date

set myLogFile to open for access POSIX file "/Users/username/Desktop/test.log" with write permission

tell application "Mail"
    set theAccounts to every account
    repeat with eachAccount in theAccounts
        set theMailboxes to mailboxes in eachAccount
        write name of eachAccount & return to myLogFile

        repeat with eachMailbox in theMailboxes
            if (ignoreTheseMailboxes does not contain (name of eachMailbox) then
                write " " & name of eachMailbox & return to myLogFile

                set theMessages to messages in eachMailbox
                repeat with eachMessage in theMessages
                    if date received of eachMessage <= expiryDate then
                        write "     " & subject of eachMessage & return to myLogFile
                    end if
                end repeat
            end if
        end repeat
    end repeat
end tell

close myLogFile

You'll have to forgive any typos from me slimming things down, but the above is the basic behaviour of the script, and exhibits the same problem when run across the same e-mail accounts and messages.

What I'd like to know is, what is the reason that a script like this would experience increasing slowdowns, and is there a way to optimise it to avoid these kinds of issues?

It's just unfortunate that we can't see smart folders in Mail, as it could significantly reduce the number of messages needing to be searched (and avoid the need to test them).

[edit]
Also, I should note that during operation the process running the script will creep up quickly to 100% CPU usage, so AppleScript is definitely doing something, I just can't figure out what!

Best Answer

It seems the issue isn't with AppleScript, but with Script Editor, after confirming it with a back and forth with an Apple engineer. I'm still not convinced of why this should be the case, but the script runs a lot better when run via osascript, especially after refactoring it to use a whose statement when fetching messages, rather than iterating over them with an if condition.

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AppleScript Omnifocus – Date Calculation, Week Numbers and Start Date

Thanks to @ryan-m's comment I found a solution. Turns out date(1) is actually really cool. Its ability to do "adjustments" were the answer.

You can tell date to simply "go to" a specific day by using -v. You can then use plus and minus to "adjust" that date in another -v. So for instance:

date -v 1w -v 16y

Will go to the first month of 2016. (Or a date that contains that date)

With an adjustment we can walk through dates:

date -v +1w -v +0d -v 16y
date -v +1w -v +6d -v 16y

This goes to the first week of 2016. The second command goes from the beginning of that first week 6 days ahead. This is the 10th of January 2016. -v +2w would be the second week, and so forth. It's apparent which part can be automated here.

Everything that +'string' at the end does is it formats the date you're at in the way you want it displayed. I use this in my script to make a date-string that AppleScript's date command understands. Please don't confuse the shell command date(1) with the AppleScript date command.

This is the script I ended up with, by the way:

repeat with weekNumber from 1 to 52
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    set weekStart to date weekStartShell
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    set projectName to (("CW" & weekNumber & ": " & weekStartShell & " - " & weekEndShell) as string)

    tell application "OmniFocus"
        tell folder "Day Projects" of default document
            set projectWeek to make new project with properties {name:projectName, defer date:weekStart, due date:weekEnd, singleton action holder:true}

        end tell
    end tell

end repeat

Note that in order to use AppleScript's set var to date "date-string" you have to give it a string in your locale. In Europe the string is 01. 02. 2016 23:59:59. In America this probably is something like 2016/02/01 23:59:59. You need to modify these in the variables in the script. (+'%Y/%m/%d' at the end)

AppleScript to record webcam video

Someone at Apple communities helped me resolve the issue. Posting an answer if someone faces the same issue.

 set theCurrentDate to current date
set dateTime to short date string of theCurrentDate & space & time string of theCurrentDate
set P to offset of "/" in dateTime
set dateTime to text 1 through (P - 1) of dateTime & "-" & text (P + 1) through -1 of dateTime
set P to offset of "/" in dateTime
set dateTime to text 1 through (P - 1) of dateTime & "-" & text (P + 1) through -1 of dateTime
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tell application "QuickTime Player"
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     tell newMovieRecording
           start
           delay 5
           pause
           save newMovieRecording in POSIX file theFilePath
           stop
           close newMovieRecording
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Best Answer

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