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PlanetPress Talk
PlanetPress Talk is a scripting language developed by Objectif Lune, and described in detail in the
PlanetPress Talk Language Reference.
You can use PlanetPress Talk expressions in many places in the documents you create in PlanetPress
Design. You can enter a PlanetPress Talk expression in any text box with a maroon label.
You can also include complete PlanetPress Talk programs in your document. This provides the power and
flexibility that make even the most complex documents possible in PlanetPress Design. You enter
PlanetPress Talk programs when you create a user-defined emulation, and when you edit the PlanetPress
Talk properties of an object, a page, a document, or a condition. When you edit the PlanetPress Talk
properties, you can enter PlanetPress Talk code directly, or through the PlanetPress Talk Editor.
Finally, you can also write your own PlanetPress Talk functions from PlanetPress Design, making it easy to
extend the language to suit the requirements of your particular document or documents. When you write
programs in PlanetPress Talk, you should work through the logic of the program you intend to create
before you start coding. This ensures the program accomplishes what you intend it to accomplish, and
makes the coding more straightforward. It can also result in insights into different ways of accomplishing
the same task, or raise issues that were not immediately apparent.
Note that PlanetPress Talk is case-insensitive.
Learning PlanetPress Talk
One of the most efficient ways to familiarize yourself with PlanetPress Talk is to create an object, convert
it to PlanetPress Talk, and examine the code, consulting the PlanetPress Talk Language Reference as
necessary for explanations of each line of code. You can further verify your understanding by modifying
the code and observing the changes that occur in the object as a result.
As an example of this technique, the following is the code for a converted data selection object. The data
selection is from columns 1 through 12 on line 1 of the data page.
moveto(0,0)
setstyle(&Default)
margin(0,0.167)
rmoveto(stringwidth(''),0)
rmoveto(neg(stringwidth('')),0)
show(@(1,1,12))
Consider what each line of the code accomplishes, and notice that parameters to a function or procedure
may themselves be PlanetPress Talk expressions.
What is PlanetPress Talk and where can I use it in the documents I create?
Command: Tells the document to:
moveto(0,0)
Move the drawing pen to the top left of the object.