Language Guide

Using Object Class Definitions 119
CHAPTER 5
Objects and References 5
Figure 5-0
Listing 5-0
Table 5-0
Objects are the things in applications, the Operating System, or AppleScript
that can respond to commands. For example, application objects are objects
stored in applications and their documents. Usually, they are identifiable items
that users can manipulate in applications, such as windows, words, characters,
and paragraphs in a text-editing application. Objects can contain data, in the
form of values, properties, and elements, that can change over time.
Each object belongs to an object class, which is a category for objects that have
similar characteristics and respond to the same commands. To find out what
types of data an object contains, or which commands it can respond to, you
can check its object class definition. To refer to objects from scripts, you use
references, which are compound names, similar to paths or addresses, that
identify objects or groups of objects.
This chapter describes how to interpret object class definitions and how to use
references to specify objects. For examples of object class definitions provided
by an application, see “Scriptable Text Editor Object Class Definitions,” which
begins on page 318.
Most objects are contained in applications. It is also possible to create another
type of object, called a script object, that can be stored in scripts or saved in
files. For information about script objects, see Chapter 9, “Script Objects.”
Using Object Class Definitions 5
Object class definitions describe what objects that belong to a particular class
have in common. This guide contains object class definitions for system objects
(in this chapter) and Scriptable Text Editor objects (in Appendix B). This section
describes the information contained in object class definitions.