19.4 The 'aeut' Resource

When terminology is resolved according to the rules in the earlier section Section 19.1.2, AppleScript itself is represented by a dictionary. This dictionary is the 'aeut' resource. The 'aeut' resource is loaded when the AppleScript scripting component comes into being. It looks just like any other dictionary. There's just one problem: you, the human reader, can't normally see it. Of the commonly used script editing programs, only Smile displays the 'aeut' resource. Therefore, I present it in Appendix A.

The appendix contains a representation of the 'aeut' resource as currently implemented by AppleScript on Mac OS X. You will be amazed when you see what's in there—basically, it's the entire AppleScript language as already described in this book, including comparison operators, prepositions for handler parameters, the global script properties, and so forth. There are even some terms not discussed in this book (because in practice they don't arise, or may never even have been implemented, like the upper case class). You can learn a lot from perusing the 'aeut' resource. For one thing, it shows you why certain variable names generate terminology conflicts. (It's because they're defined in the 'aeut' resource. How you're supposed to find this out without being able to see the 'aeut' resource is a mystery to me. AppleScript programming is often indistinguishable from guessing.)