User Guide

Writing Scripts with Lingo 407
• The word next or previous refers to the next marker or the marker before the current scene,
respectively.
• The term the frame followed by a minus or plus sign and the number of frames before
or after the current frame refers to a frame that’s a specific number of frames before or after
the current frame. For example,
the frame - 20 refers to the frame 20 frames before the
current frame.
• The term the frameLabel identifies the label assigned to the current frame.
• The labelList system property contains a list of all of the markers in the Score. Each marker
is separated in the list by a carriage return.
• The function marker(), with a positive or negative number of markers used as the parameter,
refers to the marker that’s a specific number of markers before or after the current frame. For
example,
marker(-1) returns the frame number of the previous marker and marker(2)
returns the frame number of the second marker after the current frame. If the frame is marked,
marker(0) returns the frame number of the current frame; if not, marker(0) gives the frame
number of the previous marker.
• The term movie followed by the movie name refers to the beginning of another movie. For
example,
movie "Navigation" refers to the beginning of the movie called Navigation.
• The word frame plus a frame identifier, the word of, the word movie, and the movie name
refers to a specific frame in another movie; for example,
frame 15 of movie "Navigation"
refers to frame 15 of the movie called Navigation.
Using symbols
A symbol is a string or other value that begins with the pound (#) sign.
Symbols are user-defined constants. Comparisons using symbols can usually be performed very
quickly, providing more efficient code.
For example, the statement
userLevel = #novice
runs more quickly than the statement
userLevel = "novice"
Symbols can’t contain spaces or punctuation.
Convert a string to a symbol by using the
symbol() function. Convert a symbol back to a string
by using the
string() function.
x = symbol("novice")
put x
-- #novice
x = string(#novice)
put x
-- "novice"
See # (symbol) and string() in the Lingo Dictionary.