Today the news broke that Sal Soghoian has left Apple. For those of you that may not know Sal, he was the longtime Product Manager of Automation Technologies at Apple, but in my mind his unofficial title has always been “Automation Tsar”. If it involved AppleScript, Automator, or any other technique to make your Mac do work for you, Sal was your man. For the last 20 years, Sal had a hand in all those little built-in automation services that improved your Mac experience. Every time Apple releases an update to macOS, one of my questions is, “What has Sal given us this year?” He's been like Santa for automation nerds.

I learned all that I know about AppleScript a few years ago when I took a two day course from Sal at Macworld. That man can make a Mac dance.

Sal explains at his website that, “I was informed that my position as Product Manager of Automation Technologies was eliminated for business reasons." Sal was incredible asset for Apple and I'm baffled by the fact that they would let him go. This does not bode well for the future of automation on Apple platforms.

I wish Sal all the best and I'm certain that we will hear more from him … perhaps even more than we heard when he was inside Apple. I recommend following his website at macosxautomation.com.