Language Guide

CHAPTER 4
Commands
84 Command Definitions
different computer when the Display Dialog scripting addition is not present
in the Scripting Additions folder, AppleScript replaces the words display
dialog in the script with «event sysodlog». In this case you should drop
the icon for the Display Dialog scripting addition into the Scripting Additions
folder before attempting to run the script.
Double angle brackets can also occur in results. For example, if the value of a
variable is a script object named Joe, AppleScript represents the script object
as shown in this script:
script Joe
property theCount : 0
end script
set x to Joe
x
--result: «script Joe»
(For more information about script objects, see Chapter 9, “Script Objects.”)
Similarly, if the value of a variable is of class Data and AppleScript can’t
represent the data directly, the value of the data is represented within angle
brackets by the word data followed by some sequence of ASCII characters.
Although this may not resemble the original data, the data’s original format
is preserved. You can treat the data like any other value, except that you
can’t view it directly in any Script Editor window.
Command Definitions 4
The sections that follow are in alphabetical order by command name and
provide definitions for both AppleScript commands and standard application
commands. The general features of these types of commands are described in
“Types of Commands,”which begins on page 71. The command type is listed
opposite the command name on the first line of each definition.
For definitions of commands provided by the scripting additions that come
with AppleScript English, see the AppleScript Scripting Additions Guide. For
definitions of commands provided by other scripting additions, see the
documentation for those scripting additions.