Sal Soghoian is a user automation expert, software developer, author and musician. He joined

Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company ...

in January 1997 to serve as the Product Manager of Automation Technologies. These technologies include

AppleScript AppleScript is a scripting language created by Apple Inc. that facilitates automated control over scriptable Mac applications. First introduced in System 7, it is currently included in all versions of macOS as part of a package of system aut ...

Services Service may refer to: Activities * Administrative service, a required part of the workload of university faculty * Civil service, the body of employees of a government * Community service, volunteer service for the benefit of a community or a p ...

, the

Terminal Terminal may refer to: Computing Hardware * Terminal (electronics), a device for joining electrical circuits together * Terminal (telecommunication), a device communicating over a line * Computer terminal, a set of primary input and output dev ...

, Apple Configurator and Automator, among others. He left Apple in 2016 when his position was eliminated. Soghoian has advanced Apple's incorporation of automation into its products by writing the scripting dictionaries for

iWork iWork is an office suite of applications created by Apple Inc. for its macOS and iOS operating systems, and also available cross-platform through the iCloud website. It includes the presentation application Keynote, the word processing and ...

iPhoto iPhoto is a discontinued digital photograph manipulation software application developed by Apple Inc. It was included with every Macintosh personal computer from 2002 to 2015, when it was replaced with Apple's Photos application. Originally so ...

Aperture In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and focal length of an optical system determine the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane. An ...

, and Photos, and the Mastered for iTunes automation tools. He designed and wrote the automation tools in the Apple Configurator application, which uses macOS automation to manage iOS device deployment. Apple Configurator consists of a central AppleScriptObj-C library and a set of Automator actions. Apple Configurator automation tools enable iOS devices to be prepared, managed and refreshed automatically upon their connection to a hosting macOS computer. Soghoian's current projects include a collection of hundreds of voice-triggered dictation commands for controlling aspects of macOS, including the Keynote,

Pages Page most commonly refers to: * Page (paper), one side of a leaf of paper, as in a book Page, PAGE, pages, or paging may also refer to: Roles * Page (assistance occupation), a professional occupation * Page (servant), traditionally a young mal ...

Numbers A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers can ...

, Photos, and the Finder applications. He created, hosts and manages a group of user automation resources at macosxautomation.com. In late 2002, Soghoian joined an ad hoc team of engineers developing an application for creating and running automation workflows. After a year and a half of difficult but steady development, Soghoian showed the application to Steve Jobs. It was just one week before Apple's 2004 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). Jobs was impressed with the new tool and asked Soghoian to appear at the

WWDC The Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is an information technology conference held annually by Apple Inc. The conference is usually held at Apple Park in California. The event is usually used to showcase new software and technologies in t ...

keynote to demonstrate Automator for the first time to attendees. This innovative integrated workflow feature was introduced as part of Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger. Soghoian holds relate
U.S. patent #7428535
During Soghoian's tenure, Apple's native automation scripting language,

, was revived and upgraded to be PowerPC native in Mac OS 8.5. It was also successfully transitioned to Apple's UNIX-based operating system,

Mac OS X macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and la ...

, becoming integrated with the native IDE, which included Project Builder and Interface Builder (the precursors to

Xcode Xcode is Apple's integrated development environment (IDE) for macOS, used to develop software for macOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and tvOS. It was initially released in late 2003; the latest stable release is version 14.2, released on December 13, ...

). In the evolving releases of OS X from Lion to Mavericks, AppleScript added library support and direct access to the Cocoa frameworks through AppleScriptObj-C, a powerful fusion of AppleScript and the Objective-C programming language. OS X Yosemite introduced JavaScript for Automation (JXA), a peer to AppleScript providing access to

Apple Events Apple events are the message-based interprocess communication mechanism in Mac OS, first making an appearance in System 7 and supported by every version of the classic Mac OS since then and by macOS. Apple events describe "high-level" events suc ...

and Cocoa through an enhanced version of JavaScript Core. Soghoian was an advocate for AppleScript years before being employed by Apple. As a consultant, he created automation solutions for the publishing industry in the 1990s. Soghoian also authored a popular script collection called Sal's AppleScript Snippets, the ShadowCaster Quark XTension, two books, including AppleScript 1-2-3, and numerous magazine articles about automation. He was a special guest at one Leopard Tech Talk. He was a featured presenter for Quark, Thunder Lizard Productions, Apple, Seybold, and the Macworld conferences.

Personal life

Sal Soghoian was born into an Armenian-American military family, and spent his childhood growing up on Marine and Naval bases, including Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, from which he was evacuated during the Cuban Missile Crisis. In his college years, he attended the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...

in 1969 for a short time, but later moved to Boston where he earned a degree in music from the Berklee College of Music. In the late 1980s he returned to Charlottesville, Virginia, where he worked at the digital printshop "Pixels." Although he is known for his work at Apple, he is also an avid jazz musician. During his time in Charlottesville, he played guitar in a band called "Blue Indigo". The band is notable because it was composed of

Carter Beauford Carter Anthony Beauford (born November 2, 1958) is an American drummer, percussionist, and founding member of Dave Matthews Band. He is known for his ability to adapt to a variety of genres, and both his ambidextrous and his open-handed drumm ...

(drummer),

LeRoi Moore LeRoi Holloway Moore (September 7, 1961 – August 19, 2008) was an American saxophonist. He was a founding member of the Dave Matthews Band. Moore often arranged music for songs written by Dave Matthews. Moore also co-wrote many of the band's ...

(Saxophone), George Melvin (Hammond B3 organ), and Soghoian (guitar). Beauford and Moore would go on to later musical fame as founding members of the

Dave Matthews Band Dave Matthews Band (also known by the initials DMB) is an American rock band formed in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 1991. The band's founding members were singer-songwriter and guitarist Dave Matthews, bassist Stefan Lessard, drummer and bac ...

. Jeff Decker and Phil Riddle joined, following their departure. He is the uncle of noted privacy researcher & activist,

Christopher Soghoian Christopher Soghoian (born 1981) is a privacy researcher and activist. He is currently working for Senator Ron Wyden as the senator’s Senior Advisor for Privacy & Cybersecurity. From 2012 to 2016, he was the principal technologist at the Amer ...

Bibliography

* Soghoian, Sal. (1994). ''The Quark XTensions Book/Book and Disk''. Hayden Books. . * Soghoian, Sal; Cheeseman, Bill. (2009). ''Apple Training Series: AppleScript 1-2-3''.

Peachpit Press Peachpit is a publisher of books focused on graphic design, web design, and development. Peachpit's parent company is Pearson Education, which owns additional educational media brands including Addison-Wesley, Prentice Hall, and New Riders. Fo ...

. .

Discography

* Blue Indigo, Catwalk * Sal Soghoian, To Be with You

References

External links

Sal Soghoian

Mac OS X Automation: Automator, Applescript, and Services

Automator.us

Mastered for iTunes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Soghoian, Sal Living people Apple Inc. employees American people of Armenian descent Berklee College of Music alumni University of Virginia alumni Year of birth missing (living people)