User Guide

Chapter 356
abbr, abbrev, abbreviated
These elements are used by the date and time functions.
See also
date() (system clock)
abort
Syntax
abort
Description
Command; tells Lingo to exit the current handler and any handler that called it without
executing any of the remaining statements in the handler. This differs from the
exit keyword,
which returns to the handler from which the current handler was called.
The
abort command does not quit Director.
Example
This statement instructs Lingo to exit the handler and any handler that called it when the amount
of free memory is less than 50K:
if the freeBytes < 50*1024 then abort
See also
exit, halt, quit
abs()
Syntax
abs (numericExpression)
Description
Math function; calculates the absolute value of a numerical expression. If numericExpression is
an integer, its absolute value is also an integer. If
numericExpression is a floating-point number,
its absolute value is also a floating-point number.
The
abs function has several uses. It can simplify the tracking of mouse and sprite movement by
converting coordinate differences (which can be either positive or negative numbers) into
distances (which are always positive numbers). The
abs function is also useful for handling
mathematical functions, such as
sqrt and log.
Example
This statement determines whether the absolute value of the difference between the current
mouse position and the value of the variable
startV is greater than 30 (since you wouldn’t want
to use a negative number for distance). If it is, the foreground color of sprite 6 is changed.
if (the mouseV - startV).abs > 30 then sprite(6).forecolor = 95