Conventions Used in This Book

The followi typographical conventions are used in this book:

Constant width

Is used to indicate command-line computer output and code examples, as well as AppleScript class names, objects, parameters, data types, properties, methods, constants, variables, and flow-control statements like repeat.

Constant width bold

Is used to indicate user input in examples.

Italic

Is used to introduce new terms and to indicate URLs, user-defined files and directories, commands, file extensions, filenames, directory or folder names, and UNC pathnames.

Italic is also used to highlight chapter titles and, in some instances, to visually separate the topic of a list.

This is an example of a note, which signifies valuable and timesaving information.

This is an example of a warning, which alerts to a potential pitfall in the program. Warnings can also refer to a procedure that might be dangerous if not carried out in a specific way.

Keyboard Shortcuts

When keyboard shortcuts are shown (Command-N), a hyphen means that the keys must be held down simultaneously, while a plus means that the keys should be pressed sequentially.

Path Notation

We use a shorthand path notation to show you how to reach a given user interface element or option. The path notation is relative to a well-known location. For example, the following path:

Script Editor's File Open Dictionary

means "Open the Script Editor's File menu, then choose Open Dictionary."

File path delimiters

AppleScript uses the colon to separate the directories in a file path, as in MyStartupDisk:Desktop Folder:myfile. The major scripting additions that deal with file paths, such as choose file, choose file name (Mac OS X and OS 9.1), choose folder, and path to, display their file paths in alias return values as colons. The chapters that deal with Mac OS X, however, will often identify the locations of files and folders with the Unix-style slash character / as the path delimiter (e.g., /users/bruceper/documents/). This is the path delimiter used by Darwin, which is the core operating system for Mac OS X and has Unix origins. The opening slash character in the file path /users/bruceper/ sets the beginning of the path to the "users" folder on the disk or partition where Mac OS X is located. AppleScript on Mac OS X still generally uses colons as the path delimiter, however, which maintains consistency with older scripts (OS 8/9). One place where you can use the slash character to locate a path for AppleScript is in setting the target property for a Finder window, as in:

set the target of Finder window 1 to "/users/bruceper/"

Italic Constant Width

On occasion, you will find a command description such as connect remote access configuration object, which means that the connect command takes a remote access configuration object as a parameter.