Language Guide

CHAPTER 2
Overview of AppleScript
20 Values
the application. Figure 2-2 shows how AppleScript gets the words in the
Scriptable Text Editor’s dictionary.
Figure 2-2 How AppleScript gets the Scriptable Text Editor dictionary
In addition to the terms defined in application dictionaries, the AppleScript
English dialect includes its own standard terms. Unlike the terms in applica-
tion dictionaries, the standard AppleScript terms are always available. You can
use these terms (such as If, Tell, and First) anywhere in a script. This manual
describes the standard terms provided by the AppleScript English dialect.
The words in system and application dictionaries are known as reserved
words. When defining new words for your script—such as identifiers for
variables—you cannot use reserved words.
Values 2
A value is a simple data structure that can be represented, stored, and
manipulated within AppleScript. AppleScript recognizes many types of values,
including character strings, real numbers, integers, lists, and dates. Values are
fundamentally different from application objects, which can be manipulated
from AppleScript, but are contained in applications or their documents. Values
can be created in scripts or returned as results of commands sent to applications.
Scriptable Text Editor
application
Dictionary
resource
AppleScript
extension
Commands:
Objects:
cut
make
print
...
character
paragraph
window
...
Dictionary of
commands
and objects