AppleScript vs. Lua vs. PhantomJS vs. VBScript Comparison Chart

AppleScript is a scripting language created by Apple. It allows users to directly control scriptable Macintosh applications, as well as parts of macOS itself. You can create scripts, and sets of written instructions, to automate repetitive tasks, combine features from multiple scriptable applications, and create complex workflows. AppleScript 2.0 can use scripts developed for any version of AppleScript from 1.1 through 1.10.7, any scripting addition created for AppleScript 1.5 or later for macOS, and any scriptable application for Mac OS v7.1 or later. A scriptable application is one that can be controlled by a script. For AppleScript, that means being responsive to inter-application messages, called Apple events, sent when a script command targets the application. AppleScript itself provides a very small number of commands, but it provides a framework into which you can plug many task-specific commands, those provided by scriptable applications and scriptable parts of macOS.

PhantomJS is a headless web browser scriptable with JavaScript, running on Windows, macOS, Linux, and FreeBSD. Utilizing QtWebKit as its back-end, it offers fast and native support for various web standards, including DOM handling, CSS selectors, JSON, Canvas, and SVG. This makes it an optimal solution for tasks such as page automation, screen capture, headless website testing, and network monitoring. For example, a simple script can load a webpage and capture it as an image.