Language Guide

G L O S S A R Y
370
subroutine A collection of statements that
are executed in response to a user-defined
command.
suite A set of AppleScript words that
are related.
synonym An AppleScript word, phrase, or
language element that has the same meaning
as another AppleScript word, phrase, or
language element. For example, the opera-
tor does not equal is a synonym for .
syntax The arrangement of words in an
AppleScript statement.
syntax description A template for using a
command or control statement in a script.
target The recipient of a command.
Potential targets include application objects,
script objects, the current script, and the
current application.
Tell statement A control statement that
specifies the default target for the state-
ments it contains.
test A Boolean expression that specifies
the conditions of a filter or an If statement.
Text A synonym for the AppleScript value
class String.
Try statement A two-part compound
statement that contains a series of
AppleScript statements, followed by an
error handler to be invoked if any of
those statements cause an error.
unary operator An operator that derives a
new value from a single value.
user-defined command A command that
triggers the execution of a collection of
statements, called a subroutine, elsewhere
in the same script.
value A type of data that can be manipu-
lated by and stored in scripts. The
AppleScript value classes are Boolean,
Class, Constant, Data, Date, Integer, List,
Real, Record, Reference, and String.
value class A category of values with
similar characteristics. Values that belong
to the same class respond to the same
operators.
variable A named container in which to
store a value.
With Timeout statement A control
statement that allows you to change the
amount of time AppleScript waits for
application commands to complete before
stopping execution of the script.
With Transaction statement A control
statement that allows you to take advantage
of applications that support the notion of a
transaction—a sequence of related events
that should be performed as if they were a
single operation.