The following tables list the features offered in Script Debugger 8, the free Script Debugger 8 Lite, and by the previous versions of Script Debugger.

Editing

Feature 8.0 8.0 Lite 7.0 6.0
Text Themes
Tabbed document windows
   macOS native tabbed window
Multiple windows on the same script
Restore open scripts on launch
Script templates
Code folding
Split-pane editing
Regular Expression find and replace
Auto-Indentation
Auto-pairing of delimiters ({[« »]})
Auto-close AppleScript blocks
Auto-generate tell blocks (by dragging applications from dictionary or using Paste Tell command)
   Generate tell blocks using application IDs
   Add library use statement when pasting library commands
Auto-generate object specifiers (by dragging from explorers or using the Paste Tell command)
Auto-generate variable references (by dragging from Variables tab)
Auto-generate file references (by dragging from the Finder)
Option-click to lookup ASObjC references in Dash
AppleScript block and delimiter balancing
AppleScript block highlighting (when mouse hovers in gutter)
Line number display
Line wrapping
Invisible and control character display
Escape whitespace characters when compiling
Navigation Bar
Line Commands
   Move Up
   Move Down
   Insert Line Before
   Insert Line After
   Cut Lines
   Copy Lines
   Delete Lines
   Duplicate Lines
Table of contents menu
Text substitution (with clipping placeholder support)
Tell block builder
Open Quickly (discontiguous Spotlight script searches)
Open Dictionary
   Applications
   ‘use’d script libraries
Manifest
Status bar
Versions support
External editing of scripts (using BBEdit or another ODBEditorSuite compatible editor)
Code completion of AppleScriptObjC terminology
AppleScriptObjC refactoring
Shift/Indent lines
Entab and Detab
Implicit parent script
Implicit tell target
Dropped file handling
   Create tell block for dropped application
   Paste file reference
      Name
      Alias
      Posix path
      «class furl» path
      HFS path
      Finder file reference
   Invoke on open handler
Clippings menu and clippings inspector
   Show user clippings at top of clippings menu
   Hide system clippings
   Clipping placeholder support
Clippings placeholders
   Dates, times, usernames, paired and unpaired names
   Application picker
   Library picker
   Enumeration Pickers
   Custom Pickers
   ASObjC placeholders
Tell Context inspector
Dictionary inspector
Recording
   AppleScript recording
   Recording explorer actions

Files

Feature 8.0 8.0 Lite 7.0 6.0
Open and save all AppleScript file formats
Browse past document versions
   View/Restore past versions
   Execute past versions without restoring
   Debug past versions without restoring
Code Signing
   Developer ID signing on save
   Developer ID signing on export
   Ad hoc deep signing on save (Big Sur)
   Ad hoc deep signing on export (Big Sur)
   Hardened runtime signing/notarization integration on export with SD Notary
   Always-on code signing on save
   Code signing on export Run-Only
Bundle editing
   Bundle attributes (bundleID, copyright, version, build number)
   Auto-increment build number on save
   Auto-increment build number on export
   Minimum OS version
   Application Transport Security control
   Create background only applets
   Droplet file filtering by Uniform Type Identifiers
   Droplet file filtering by filename extensions
   Bundle contents (script libraries, resources, etc.)
Auto-Save and recovery
Recover damaged scripts
Export Run-Only
   One-click direct export
   Convert bundled scripts to Run-Only
   Embed used libraries
   Code signing
Create enhanced applets and droplets
Prevent dependant application launches when opening scripts
User created script templates

Execution

Feature 8.0 8.0 Lite 7.0 6.0
Run script and see result
Debugging
   Single step execution
   Tracing
   Breakpoints
   Break on AppleScript exceptions
   Expressions
   Code coverage
   Call stack displaying associated local variables
   Floating mini debugger window
   External debugging (debug scripts running within other applications)
Script timer
Display properties and global variables (when script finishes)
Display properties and global variables (while paused when debugging)
Variable deletion (while paused when debugging)
Drag & drop manipulation of variable values
Drag & drop manipulation of list, records and script objects
Event simulation (open, run, idle, quit, Folder Actions, Digital Hub)
Implicit tell target
Display arbitrary expressions
Expression tooltips
Leaked resources detection (e.g. unclosed file references)
Event logging
   Always-on event logging
   Filter by target application
   Filter by content
   Event logging window (separate from script window)
   Event result explorer
   Show source line for event log entry (when debugging)

Dictionary Viewer

Feature 8.0 8.0 Lite 7.0 6.0
Dictionary finder
   Running
   Recent
   Favourite
   Script Libraries
   Known applications
Dictionary searching
Cross dictionary searching
Launch and quit applications
Object model hierarchy display
Object model inheritance display
Expanded dictionary documentation
Explorer outlining of objects
   AppleScript lists and records
   “Best” date display
   “Best” file display with Reveal In Finder and QuickLook
   “Best” HTML string display
   “Best” image display
   “Best” NSColor display
   AppleScript Objective-C scalar display (NSString, NSDate, NSNumber, etc.)
   AppleScript Objective-C collection display (NSArray, NSSet, NSDictionary)
   Exploration of running applications
      View elements and properties
      Edit property values
      Delete object instances
      Move object instances (Drag & Drop)
      Duplicate object instances (Drag & Drop)
   Outliner reloading and scope bar
   Explorer windows (separate from script window)

Building

Feature 8.0 8.0 Lite 7.0 6.0
Produce Native Applets for Apple Silicon
Codesigning & Notarizing
Bundling Preferences
Build & Export Settings
Direct Export of Run-Only scripts

Miscellaneous

Feature 8.0 8.0 Lite 7.0 6.0
Respond to applescript:// URLs
Act as default editor for .scpt, .scprd and .applescript files
Raw Apple Event code display (script, dictionary, outliner, explorer AEPrint view)
Native on Apple Silicon
Dark Mode support (with text themes)
Big Sur Appearance
Searchable Preferences
Scripting interface
   Document handling (open, close, save, compile, execute)
   Document introspection (get variable and handler meta-data)
   Document view settings
   Dictionary handling (open, close)
   Dictionary view settings
   Themes
Keyboard shortcut customization
Free maintenance updates

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