Hypertalk: the Language for the Rest of Us

HyperTalk: The Language for the Rest of Us

Kyle Wheeler January 18, 2004

Contents 1 Introduction

1 Introduction 1 There is, perhaps, no piece of software written by Ap- ple Computer, Inc. more prone to generating extreme 2 History 1 emotions in its users than its operating system. Next 2.1 TheBirth ...... 1 below that, however, is HyperCard. Designed and re- 2.2 TheLife...... 2 leased in 1987 by Bill Atkinson [7], HyperCard was an 2.3 TheDeath...... 2 instant success. Leveraging the power and simplicity 2.4 TheLegend ...... 2 of its scripting language, HyperTalk, designed by Bill Atkinson and by Dan Winkler [1], HyperCard demys- 3 Goals 2 tiﬁed the art of creating software. The language has a grammar and syntax similar to English, and as such ap- 4 Syntax Semantics 3 pealed to computer hobbyists, teachers, and the uniniti- 4.1 Implementation Notes ...... 3 ated alike. The commands HyperTalk uses are similar to 4.2 Objects ...... 3 those used by the Macintosh Toolbox, the base-level API 4.3 Messages ...... 4 of Apple’s Macintosh operating system, and the logical 4.4 Handlers...... 4 structure is similar to Pascal and organized in an event- 5 Bibliography 4 driven manner [8].

A BNF 6 A.1 Scripts...... 6 2 History A.2 Expressions ...... 6 A.3 Ordinals and Positions ...... 7 2.1 The Birth A.4 Chunks and Containers ...... 7 HyperTalk was born as the core scripting language of A.5 Objects ...... 7 the HyperCard application, developed by Bill Atkinson1 A.6 Commands ...... 8 for Apple Computer, Inc. in 1987 under the condition A.6.1 Command Nonterminals . . . . 8 that it must be available for free on all Macs. Origi- A.6.2 Commands ...... 9 nally, the application was named “WildCard” (and the A.6.3 set Command Syntax ...... 11 language “WildTalk”, respectively), however, the name A.7 Functions ...... 11 was changed because of legal issues. Atkinson was inspired to explore new interface technologies by Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center and their SmallTalk language. Abstract Quickly, the application and the language became very popular. The language was easy to learn and drew In 1976, Apple Computer, Inc. released the Apple I and many people into programming computers for all sorts created the personal computing industry. In 1984, Ap- of purposes, from basic animation, to automation, to cre- ple released the ﬁrst Macintosh computer, revolution- ating large databases. izing the personal computing industry. In 1987, Apple released HyperCard and HyperTalk, and tried to revolu- 1Key developer of QuickDraw and MacPaint, an Apple Fellow, and tionize the personal computing industry again. founder of GeneralMagic. Currently a high-resolution nature photog- rapher.

1 2.2 The Life HyperTalk languished and became less popular. Hyper- Card is still available for sale on Apple’s website, but Because Apple was under obligation to Bill Atkinson to has not received an update since the mid-nineties. provide HyperCard for free, the company found it dif- ficult to justify devoting employees to developing Hy- perCard further. Regardless, HyperCard and HyperTalk 2.4 The Legend became very popular, spawning a bimonthly magazine HyperCard clones, which also used the HyperTalk script- (HyperLink), and more than a few books. HyperCard ing language, were developed in the absence of Apple’s “stacks” began to be sold alongside more traditional Mac- commanding lead. These clones and descendants in- intosh programs in mail-order catalogs. cluded SuperCard (for the Macintosh)3, Toolbox (for Mi- Eventually, in 1989, the internal political environ- crosoft Windows)4, MetaCard (for Windows, Mac, and ment of Apple Computer changed under pressure from 5 2 Unix/X11) , WinPlus (for Microsoft Windows), Hyper- Kevin Calhoun (a programmer at Apple), and Hyper- Sense (originally for NeXT), FreeCard (an open-source Card and HyperTalk underwent a massive improvement clone), PLUS (for Mac, Windows, and OS/2)6, Hyper- that resulted in HyperCard 2.0 (and a revised and more Studio (for Mac and Windows)7, LinkWay (for DOS)8, consistent version of HyperTalk) which was released in and a cross-platform OracleCard from Oracle9. [7] The 1990. Further improvements, like support for a color ideas embodied in HyperTalk, and even much of the syn- interface, were announced as being under development. tax, was also used by Macromedia in their Director and Third-party vendors developed thousands of applications Authorware products as the Lingo scripting language. based on HyperCard, and in addition, thousands of XCMDs While HyperCard was dead, HyperTalk maintained (external commands to extend HyperTalk to control ad- popularity within the ranks of Apple’s engineering core. ditional things or to provide certain functionality) “for In 1993, Apple engineers developed a mechanism stan- everything from HyperTalk compilers, to graphing sys- dard called Apple’s Open Scripting Architecture, which tems, database access, internet connectivity and practi- standardized a generic way for programs to respond to cally everything else” [7]. HyperCard was even used, script calls (“Apple Events”). This allowed the develop- before the introduction of PowerPoint, as a general-pur- ment of a slightly modified HyperTalk language, called pose presentation generator. AppleScript, that was generic enough to be a cross-ap- Shortly thereafter, however, Apple Computer reor- plication OS-level scripting language (allowing programs ganized, and spun its software division off to create the from many vendors to be controlled by and accept high- Claris company—outsourcing even the Macintosh Oper- level user commands from the operating system) [10]. ating System. This was a disaster for the company. The The language and basic grammar was even translated OS was returned to Apple, and HyperCard, after some into other languages, including English, French, Japanese, minor updates to fulfill promises of color support, was and Italian [6]—although the feature was dropped with apparently forgotten. the introduction of Mac OS 8.5 on October 17, 1998 [11]. AppleScript itself lived on as an popular way to 2.3 The Death manage work-flow and automate operating system tasks. HyperCard was finally rolled into Apple’s QuickTime group (as it seemed to be multimedia-related), and be- 3 Goals gan to be developed into a QuickTime development platform under the direction of Kevin Calhoun. The re- “HyperCard is a descendant of two ideas. sult of this development, HyperCard 3.0, was presented One was the give-away Rolodex program that I and distributed in 1996 at the annual Apple Word-Wide wrote just to keep track of my own journal arti- Developer’s Conference as a beta and sneak-preview of cles. The other was a research project I did on things to come. This version of HyperCard/HyperTalk what the new generation computer should [be] had an impressive array of new features, including in- ... ” ternet connectivity, and the ability to be displayed in a —Bill Atkinson [3] web browser or QuickTime viewer (somewhat similar to 3 Flash, by Macromedia). The new version was never re- by Silicon Beach Software, now SolutionsEtcetera[21] 4by Asymmetrix, now defunct leased, and the lead-developer, Kevin Calhoun, left Ap- 5now known as Runtime’s Revolution[4, 17] ple in 2001 [7]. Without a champion in Apple, or appar- 6by Format Software in Germany, now defunct [15] ent support from Apple’s management, HyperCard and 7by Roger Wagner Publishing [12] 8by Larry Kheriaty and eventually IBM [14] 2Calhoun left Apple in 2001 to form his own company, 4R Soft- 9Later renamed “Oracle Media Objects”[18] ware [20].

2 Algorithms aside, what probably first inspired both and second. For similar reasons, HyperTalk is untyped, HyperCard and HyperTalk is the so-called Macintosh allowing code like this to work [13]: dream. As Atkinson says, “The Macintosh dream has ask "What number do you want to square?" really been putting the power of the personal computer put it * it into field "Answer" into an individual person’s hands.” While the general applications of the time were getting much easier to use Also, many otherwise complex actions—such as di- and didn’t require memorization of control-characters aling the modem, displaying a file-browser dialog box, and command sequences, Atkinson felt that the power or getting information about the system the script is run- of program creation still lay outside the individual per- ning on—is abbreviated, abstracted, and made available son’s ken—that building useful and helpful programs to the script with simple statements. Because of this in- still required arcane knowledge of the computer’s in- credible built-in power and verbosity, the language and ternals or of some obtuse mathematical constructs. To the list of keywords in the language is quite vast. that end, HyperCard with HyperTalk was an attempt to make programming accessible to anyone. As Atkinson said, “The most exciting thing for me is when I see peo- 4.1 Implementation Notes ple amazed and pleased at the newfound power they got In many ways, HyperTalk—particularly in the begin- from a program—when they say, ‘Wow, I can do this!’. . . ning—depended heavily on the programming structure It’s the original Macintosh dream of making the power of HyperCard. HyperCard is frequently referred to as of personal computer accessible to individuals. Hyper- presenting itself like a stack of index cards. HyperCard Card is just unfolding another layer of Macintosh.” [3] projects are called “stacks” of “cards” to encourage that HyperCard and HyperTalk were particularly impor- perception. Cards are containers for other objects like tant to people invested in “hypertext”, a concept that was buttons, pictures, and text fields. The most basic Hyper- developed in Stanford in the 1960’s as a format for cre- Talk scripts were used for defining transitions from card ative information grouping [19]. HyperCard was hailed to card, and were associated with particular objects, such as a convenient demonstration of the power and utility as a button or a card or a text field. A HyperTalk script or of linked and grouped information (and more accessible function would be triggered by an event sent to that ob- to the common user than older hypertext projects like ject, such as a mouseUp. As more and more events are the Xanadu project), and many of the first HyperCard added to each object, much more active programming “stacks” were used for precisely that purpose. can be accomplished. Actions are mostly accomplished by sending events to other objects, all of which could be named and numbered for easy reference. The com- 4 Syntax Semantics mands HyperTalk uses in addition to message passing are similar to those used by the Macintosh Toolbox, the The basic design of HyperTalk is as a message-passing base-level API of Apple’s Macintosh operating system, language, generating and handling messages (or events) however most common tasks (such as displaying dialog between objects. How an object responds to messages boxes10) have been simplified. that are sent to it depends on the script attached to it. The HyperTalk script is normally saved in plain text With the advent of AppleScript and the Open Script- form in the stack, although HyperCard 2.4 capable of ing Architecture, messages (Apple Events) can even be compiling it to a binary executable. passed to other applications (which are treated as remote objects). Scripting in HyperTalk, unlike most programming 4.2 Objects languages, is extremely easy for non-programmers to Officially, HyperCard supports five kinds of objects: but- understand because its syntax is so similar to English. tons, fields, cards, backgrounds, and stacks—although The common example of how readable HyperTalk is is applications can behave as a sixth kind of object. The the phrase: distinction between buttons, fields, and backgrounds is put the first word of the third line of field only in how they present themselves in the graphic user 'hello' into field 'goodbye' interface—buttons as uneditable and clickable-looking things, fields as text blocks or graphics, and backgrounds ...which does exactly what it seems to. In order to as inert pictures; the HyperTalk capabilities of each and achieve this kind of readability and apparent simplic- which messages they can receive are roughly identical. ity requires a lot of what is frequently termed “syntactic [10] sugar.” For example, numbers have many synonyms: 1 10 and 2 can be replaced with one and two or even first For example: answer "This is displayed." with "Aha." or ask "What is your name?"

3 4.3 Messages [6] Wikimedia Foundation. AppleScript. In Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia [9]. Messages come in two flavors: system messages and http://en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/AppleScript. commands. System messages are defined by the environment, and are generated in response to user actions [7] Wikimedia Foundation. HyperCard. In Wikipedia: such as mouse clicks and key presses or environmen- The Free Encyclopedia [9]. tal changes such as the time. Commands are arbitrar- http://en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/HyperCard. ily named messages that are defined by the HyperTalk script-writer [10]. Messages are generally sent in the [8] Wikimedia Foundation. HyperTalk. In Wikipedia: following manner: The Free Encyclopedia [9]. http://en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/HyperTalk. send hmessagei to hobjecti [9] Wikimedia Foundation. Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, December 4.4 Handlers 2003. http://en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main Page. There are two kinds of execution blocks, or handlers. [10] Apple Computer Inc. HyperCard: Script The first is a message handler, which is executed when- Language Guide. Apple Computer Inc., 20525 ever the object the script is attached to receives a mes- Mariani Avenue, Cupertino, CA, 2nd edition, sage of the corresponding name. In the script, The other 1993. kind of handler is the function handler [10]. Message handlers are defined like so: [11] Cobweb Publishing Inc. Apple Timeline, 1996-2000. Web, December 2003. on hmessageNamei http://www.lowendmac.com/time/1996-00.shtml. script statements end hmessageNamei [12] Roger Wagner Publishing Inc. HyperStudio 4 Function handlers are similar: Product Information, December 2003. http://www.hyperstudio.com/hs4/index.html. function hfunctionNamei script statements [13] Jeanne A. E. DeVoto ([email protected]). end hfunctionNamei HyperTalk BNF. Web, December 2003. http://www.jaedworks.com/hypercard/scripts/hypertalk- bnf.html. 5 Bibliography [14] Christopher Keep, Tim McLaughlin, and Robin Parmar. LinkWay. In The Electronic Labyrinth References [16]. http://www.iath.virginia.edu/elab/elab.html.

[1] HyperTalk from FOLDOC, December 2003. [15] Christopher Keep, Tim McLaughlin, and Robin http://wombat.doc.ic.ac.uk/foldoc/foldoc.cgi?HyperTalk. Parmar. PLUS. In The Electronic Labyrinth [16]. http://www.iath.virginia.edu/elab/hﬂ0024.html. [2] Steve Collins. International HyperCard User Group (iHUG). Web, December 2003. [16] Christopher Keep, Tim McLaughlin, and Robin http://www.ihug.org/index.html. Parmar. The Electronic Labyrinth. University of Washington, December 2003. [3] Quick Connect. The Genius behind HyperCard: http://www.iath.virginia.edu/elab/elab.html. Bill Atkinson. Known Users, November 1987. http://www.savetz.com/ku/ku/quick genius - [17] Rod McCall. Runtime Revolution - User-Centric behind hypercard bill atkinson the november - Software Development. Web, December 2003. 1987.html. http://www.runrev.com/index uk.html. [4] MetaCard Corporation. MetaCard: Cross [18] Inc. Oracle. Oracle FAQ: Oracle Media Objects. Platform Multimedia Authoring and Application Web, December 2003. Development, December 2003. http://www.orafaq.com/faqomo.htm. http://www.metacard.com/. [19] Brenton R. Schlender. New Software Beginning [5] Peter Flecks and Pantechnicon. HyperCard FAQ, to Unlock The Power of Personal Computers. December 2003. http://pan.uqam.ca/cgi- Wall Street Journal, (2):27, November 16 1987. bin/usemod/wiki.pl?HyperCard FAQ. http://www.ihug.org/WSJ87.html.

4 [20] M.S.R.F. Schonewille. Re: [HyperCard] Kevin Calhoun, June 2001. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HyperCard/message/6353.

[21] SolutionsEtcetera.com. SuperCard 4. Web, December 2003. http://www.supercard.us/.

[22] Derrick Story. The Death of HyperCard? Web, March 2001. http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2001/03/29/mac - dev.html.

[23] Dan Winkler, Scot Kamins, and Jeanne DeVoto. HyperTalk 2.2: The Book. Random House, 1994.

5 A BNF

The BNF description of the HyperTalk language was published in HyperTalk 2.2: The Book [23], and describes the language thusly11, as cited by [13].

A.1 Scripts hscripti = hscripti hhandleri | hhandleri hhandleri = hreturni hhandleri | on hmessageKeyi hreturni hstmntListi eol end hmessageKeyi hreturni hifBlocki = if hlogicali [ hreturni ] then {hsingleTheni | hreturni hmultiTheni} hsingleTheni = hstmnti [[hreturni] helseBlocki ] hmultiTheni = hstmntListi { end if | helseBlocki } helseBlocki = else { hstmnti | hreturni hstmntListi end if } hrepeatBlocki = repeat [ forever | hdurationi | hcounti | with hidentiﬁeri = hrangei ] hreturni hstmntListi end repeat hdurationi = until hlogicali | while hlogicali hcounti = [ hfori ] hunsignedi [ times ] hrangei = hintegeri [ down ] to hintegeri

A.2 Expressions hexpri = hsourcei | - hexpri | not hexpri | hexpri hopi hexpri | ( hexpri ) | hchunki hexpri | there is { a | an | no } hexpri hopi = + | - | * | / | & | && | ˆ | = | < | > | <> |= 6 | <= | >= |≤|≥| and | or | contains | div | mod | is | is not | is in | is not in | is within | is not within | is a[n] | is not a[n]

hsourcei = hliterali | hconstanti | hsimpleContaineri | [ hadjectivei ] hfunctioni | [ hadjectivei ] hpropertyi of {hobjecti | hwindowi | hmenuItemi of hmenui | hchunki hﬁeldi }

hadjectivei = long | short | abbrev | abbr | abbreviated

hwindowi = [ the ] { card | pattern | tool | scroll } window | hmessageBoxi

hmenuItemi = hordinali menuItem | menuItem hexpri

hmenui = hordinali menu | menu hexpri hfunctioni = the htheFunci | [ the ] htheFunci of honeFuncArgi | hidentiﬁeri ( hfuncArgsi )

11There may be some omissions due to the breadth of the language.

A.3 Ordinals and Positions hordinali = [ the ] { last | mid | middle | any | ﬁrst | second | third | fourth | ﬁfth | sixth | seventh | eigth | ninth | tenth } hpositioni = this | [ the ] prev | [ the ] next

A.4 Chunks and Containers hsimpleContaineri = hvariablei | hparti | hmenui | hmessageBoxi | [ the ] selection hcontaineri = hchunki hsimpleContaineri | hsimpleContaineri hmessageBoxi = [ the ] msg [ box | window ] hchunki = [{hordinali char | char hexpri [ to hexpri ]} of] [{hordinali word | word hexpri [ to hexpri ]} of] [{hordinali item | item hexpri [ to hexpri ]} of] [{hordinali line | line hexpri [ to hexpri ]} of]

A.5 Objects hobjecti = 12 HyperCard | me | [ the ] target | hbuttoni | hfieldi | hcardi | hbkgndi | hstacki hbuttoni = {button id hunsignedFactori | button hfactori | hordinali button} [ of hcardi ] hfieldi = {field id hunsignedFactori | field hfactori | hordinali field} [ of hcardi ] hparti = hbuttoni | hfieldi | {part id hunsignedFactori | part hfactori | hordinali part} [ of hcardi ] hcardi = recent card | back | forth | card id hunsignedi | card hexpri | card hendLinei | hordinali card | hpositioni card} [ of hbkgndi ] | hordinali marked card | hpositioni marked card | marked card hexpri hbkgndi = bkgnd id hunsignedi | bkgnd hexpri | bkgnd hendLinei | hordinali bkgnd | hpositioni bkgnd hstacki = this stack | stack hexpri | stack hendLinei

12Note: “card field 1” is a field and “card (field 1)” is a card.

7 A.6 Commands A.6.1 Command Nonterminals hdateItemsi = hunsignedi, hunsignedi, hunsignedi, hunsignedi, hunsignedi, hunsignedi, hunsignedi hdatei = hunsignedi | hdateItemsi hhumanDatei [ hhumanTimei ] | hhumanTimei [ hhumanDatei ] hdateFormati = [ hadjectivei ] {seconds | dateItems | date | time} hdayOfWeeki = Sunday | Sun | Monday | Mon | Tuesday | Tue | Wednesday | Wed | Thursday | Thu | Friday | Fri | Saturday | Sat hdesti = { hcardi | hbkgndi } [ of hstacki ] | hstacki | {hcardi | hbkgndi } of [ hstacki ] hexprOrLinei hdurationi = until hlogicali | while hlogicali hhumanDatei = [ hdayOfWeeki ,] hmonthi hunsignedi , hunsignedi | hunsignedFactori {/ | -} hunsignedFactori {/ | -} hunsignedFactori hhumanTimei = hunsignedi : hunsignedi [: hunsignedi ] [ am | pm ] hmonthi = January | Jan | February | Feb | March | Mar | April | Apr | May | June | Jun | July | Jul | August | Aug | September | Sep | October | Oct | November | Nov | December | Dec

hpointi = {hintegeri , hintegeri}

hprepositioni = before | after | into

hrecti = {hintegeri , hintegeri , hintegeri , hintegeri}

hspringKeysi = hspringKeysi , hspringKeyi | hspringKeyi

hspringKeyi = shiftKey | optionKey | commandKey

hstylei = transparent | opaque | rectangle | roundrect | shadow | checkBox | radioButton | scrolling | oval | popup htextAligni = right | left | center htextStyleListi = htextStyleListi htextStylei | htextStylei htextStylei = plain | bold | italic | underline | outline | shadow | condense | extend | group hvisEffecti = hvisKindi [[very] {slow | slowly | fast} ][to hvisSrci ] hvisKindi = barn door {open | close} | cut | plain | dissolve | venetian blinds | checkerboard | iris {open | close} | scroll {left | right | up | down} | wipe {left | right | up | down} | zoom {open | out | close | in } | shrink to {top | bottom | center } | stretch from {top | bottom | center } | push {left | right | up | down}

hvisSrci = card | black | white | gray | inverse

hwindowi = {card | pattern | tool | scroll | fatBits} window | hmessageBoxi

8 A.6.2 Commands add harithi to hcontaineri answer hexpri [ with hfactori [ or hfactori [ or hfactori]]] | ﬁle hexpri [ of type hfactori [ or hfactori [ or hfactori]]] | program hexpri of type hfactori

arrowkey left | right | up | down

ask { password | ﬁle } hexpri [ with hexpri | hlinei ]

beep [hunsignedi] choose tool hunsignedi | { browse | button | ﬁeld | select | lasso | pencil | brush | eraser | line | spray [ can ] | rect | round rect | bucket | oval | curve | text | reg poly | poly } tool

click at hpointi [ with hspringKeysi ]

close ﬁle hexprOrLinei | printing | application hexprOrLinei | hwindowi

commandKeyDown hexpri controlkey hunsignedi

convert { hcontaineri | hdatei} [from hdateFormati [and hdateFormati ]]to hdateFormati [ and hdateFormati ]

copy template hexpri to hstacki

create stack hexpri [ with hbkgndi ] [ in [a] new window ] | menu hexpri

debug hintBits | pureQuickDraw { true | false } | checkPoint | maxmem | sound { on | off }

delete hchunki hsimpleContaineri | [hmenuItemExpri { of | from }] hmenuExpri hparti

dial hexpri [ with modem | with [ modem ] hexpri ]

disable [ hmenuItemi of ] hmenui | hbuttoni

divide hcontaineri by hﬂoati

domenu hexprOrLinei | hexpri [, hexpri ] [ without dialog ]

drag from hpointi to hpointi [ with hspringKeysi ]

edit [ the ] script of hobjecti

enable [ hmenuItemi of ] hmenui | hbuttoni enterInField

enterKey

export paint to ﬁle hexpri

find [ whole | string | words | word | chars | normal ] [ international ] hexpri [ in hfieldi ][ hofOnlyi marked cards ] functionkey hunsignedi get hexpri | [ the ] hpropertyi [ of { hwindowi | hobjecti | [ hmenuItemi of ] hmenui | hchunki hfieldi }]

go [to] {{hordinali | hpositioni} hendLinei | hdesti} [ in [ a ] new window ] [ without dialog ] help

hide menuBar | picture of hobjecti | { card | bkgnd } picture | hwindowi | hparti

9 import paint from file hexpri keyDown hexpri lock screen | messages | error dialogs | recent mark all cards | hcardi | cards where hexpri | cards by finding [ whole | string | words | word | chars | normal ] [ international ] hexpri [ in hfieldi ] multiply hcontaineri by harithi open [report] printing [ with dialog ] | file hexprOrLinei | hexpri [ with hexprOrLinei ] | hexprOrLinei play stop | hexpri [ [ tempo hunsignedi ] hexprOrLinei ] pop card [ hprepositioni hcontaineri ] print hexpri with hexprOrLinei | hunsignedi cards | all cards | marked cards | hcardi | hfieldi | hexpri push hdesti put hexpri [ hprepositioni [hcontaineri | [ hmenuItemi of ] hmenui [with menuMessage[s] hexpri ]] read from file hexpri {until hexpri | for hunsignedi} reply hexpri [ with keyword hexpri ] error hexpri request hexpri { of | from } hexpri { ae | appleEvent } { class | ID | sender | returnID | data [ { of | with } keyword hexpri ] } reset paint | menubar | printing returnInField returnKey save { [ this ] stack | stack hexpri } as [ stack ] hexpri select [ before | after ] text of | hchunki hfieldi | hmessagei | hparti | hemptyExpri set 13 [ the ] hpropertyi [ hofOnlyi {hwindowi | hobjecti | hmenuItemi of hmenui | hchunki hfieldi} ] to hpropVali show menuBar | picture of hobjecti | { card | bkgnd } picture | { hwindowi | hparti } [ at hpointi ] | [ all | marked | hunsignedi ] cards sort { [cards of ] { this stack | hbkgndi } | marked cards } [ ascending | descending ] [ text | numeric | international | dateTime ] by hexpri [ { lines | items } of ] hcontaineri by hexpri start using hstacki stop using hstacki subtract harithi from hcontaineri tabKey type hexpri [ with hspringKeysi ] unlock screen [ with [ visual [ effect ]] hvisEffecti ] | error dialogs | recent | messages unmark all cards | hcardi | cards where hexpri | cards by finding [ whole | string | words | word | chars | normal ] [ international ] hexpri [ in hfieldi ]

13See notes on set.

A.6.3 set Command Syntax hstylei = transparent | opaque | rectangle | roundrect | shadow | checkBox | radioButton | scrolling | oval | popup htextAligni = right | left | center htextStyleListi = htextStyleListi htextStylei | htextStylei htextStylei = plain | bold | italic | underline | outline | shadow | condense | extend | group hpropVali = hexprOrLinei | hintegeri | hunsignedi | hlogicali | hpointi | hrecti | hstylei | htextAligni | htextStyleListi exprOrLine commandChar, cursor, debugger, environment, itemDelimiter, language, markChar, menuMessage, messageWatcher, name, numberFormat, owner, printTextFont, reportTemplates, script, scriptEditor, scriptingLanguage, scriptTextFont, stacksInUse, textFont, variableWatcher, version integer top, bottom, left, right, width, height unsigned brush, dialingTime, dialingVolume, dragSpeed, family, freeSize, icon, ID, lineSize, multiSpace, partNumber, pattern, polySides, printTextHeight, printTextSize, scriptTextSize, scroll, size, textHeight, textSize, titleWidth, traceDelay, userLevel logical autoHilite, autoSelect, autoTab, blindTyping, cantAbort, cantDelete, cantModify, cantPeek, centered, checkMark, dontSearch, dontWrap, editBkgnd, enabled, ﬁlled, ﬁxedLineHeight, grid, hilite, lockErrorDialogs, lockMessages, lockRecent, lockScreen, lockText, longWindowTitles, marked, multiple, multipleLines, powerKeys, sharedHilite, sharedText, showLines, showName, showPict, suspended, textArrows, userModify, visible, wideMargins, zoomed point loc, topLeft, botRight, bottomRight, scroll (of window) rect rect, printMargins style style textAlign textAlign, printTextAlign textStyleList printTextStyle, textStyle

A.7 Functions Note: hfuncArthi, hfuncFloati, hfuncExpri, and hfuncUnsignedi all take expressions where they’re called with parentheses, but factors otherwise. abs hfuncArithi annuity hﬂoati , hﬂoati atan hfuncFloati average harithListi charToNum hfuncExpri clickChunk

11 clickH clickLine clickLoc clickText clickV cmdKey commandKey

compound hfloati , hfloati cos hfuncFloati date diskSpace exp hfuncFloati exp1 hfuncFloati exp2 hfuncFloati foundChunk foundField foundLine foundText heapSpace length hfuncExpri ln hfuncFloati ln1 hfuncFloati ln2 hfuncFloati max harithListi menus min harithListi mouse mouseClick mouseH mouseLoc mouseV number cards [ in hbkgndi ] | bkgnds | [ card | bkgnd ] { buttons | fields | parts } | { chars | words | items | lines } in hfuncExpri | hobjecti | menus | menuItems { in | of } hmenui | marked cards | windows

12 numToChar hfuncUnsignedi offset hstringi , hstringi optionKey

param hfuncUnsignedi paramCount params

random hfuncUnsignedi result

round hfuncFloati screenRect seconds

selectedButton [ card | bkgnd ] family hfuncUnsignedi selectedChunk selectedField selectedLine selectedLoc selectedText shiftKey sin hfuncFloati sound sqrt hfuncFloati stacks stackSpace sum harithListi systemVersion tan hfuncFloati target ticks time tool trunc hfuncFloati value hfuncExpri windows