---

GLOSSARY Glossary

A  

abstract class. A class used only to derive other classes. An abstract class is never instantiated. Compare concrete class.

action data. Information stored in the undo object's action history that allows a part to reverse the effects of an undo-able action.

action history. The cumulative set of reversible actions available at any one time, maintained by the undo object.

action sub-history. A subset of action data added to the undo object's action history by a part in a modal state. The part can then remove the sub-history from the action history without affecting earlier actions.

action types. constants that define whether an undo-able action is a single-stage action (such as a cut) or part of a two-stage action (such as a drag-move).

activate. For a part, to have received the selection focus; a part activates itself when a mouse-up event occurs within its frame.

active frame. The frame that has the selection focus. Editing takes place in the active frame; it displays the selection or insertion point. The active frame almost always has the keystroke focus also.

active part. The part displayed in the active frame. The active part controls the part-specific palettes and menus, and its content contains the selection or insertion point. The active part can be displayed in one or more frames, only one of which is the active frame.

active shape. A shape that describes the portion of a facet within which a part expects to receive user events. If, for example, an embedded part's used shape and active shape are identical, the containing part both draws and accepts events in the unused areas within the embedded part's frame.

ancestor. See superclass.

application. See conventional application.

arbitrator. An OpenDoc object that manages negotiation among parts about ownership of shared resources. Examples of such resources are the menu focus, the selection focus, the keystroke focus, and the serial ports.

auxiliary storage unit. An extra storage unit that a part uses to store its contents. Compare main storage unit.

B  

base class. See superclass.

Bento. A document storage architecture, built on top of a platform's native file system, that allows for the creation, storage, and retrieval of compound documents. The OpenDoc storage system on some platforms is based on Bento.

bias transform. A transform that is applied to measurements in a part's coordinate system to change them into platform-normal coordinates.

binding. The process of selecting an executable code module based on type information.

border. See frame border.

bundled frame. A frame whose contents do not respond to user events. A mouse click within a bundled frame selects the frame, but does not activate the frame.

C  

canvas. The platform-specific drawing environment on which frames are laid out. Each window or printing device has one drawing canvas. See also static canvas and dynamic canvas.

category. See part category.

change ID. (1) A number used to identify a particular instance of Clipboard contents. (2) A number used to identify a particular instance of link source data.

child class. See subclass.

CI Labs. See Component Integration Laboratories.

circular link. A configuration of links in which changes to a link's destination directly or indirectly affect its source.

class. A programming entity comprising data structures and methods, from which objects that are instances of the class are created.

class hierarchy. The structure by which classes are related through inheritance.

Clipboard. A system-maintained buffer that provides a facility for transferring data within and across documents.

Clipboard focus. Access to the Clipboard. The part with the Clipboard focus can read from and write to the Clipboard.

clip shape. A shape that defines the limits of drawing within a

clone. To copy an object and all its referenced objects. When you clone an object, that object plus all other objects to which there is a strong persistent reference in the cloned object are copied.

close. For a frame, to remove it from memory but not from storage. A closed frame is not permanently removed from its document. Compare remove.

coercion handler. In the Open Scripting Architecture, a function that converts data from one descriptor type into another.

Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA). A standard promulgated by the Object Management Group industry consortium for defining interactions among objects.

component. A software product that functions in the OpenDoc environment. Part editors and part viewers are examples of OpenDoc components.

Component Integration Laboratories (CI Labs). A consortium of platform and application vendors that oversees the development and distribution of OpenDoc technology.

compound document. A single document containing multiple heterogeneous data types, each presented and edited by its own software. A compound document is made up of parts.

concrete class. A class designed to be instantiated. Compare abstract class.

container. (1) A holder of persistent data (documents), part of an OpenDoc container suite. (2) See containing part, container application.

container application. An application program that has been modified to support embedding of OpenDoc parts. A container application functions as both document shell and part editor for the root part. Same as embedding application.

container part. See embedding part.

container suite. A set of OpenDoc classes that implement persistent storage. The container suite consists of containers, documents, drafts, and storage units.

containing frame. The display frame of a containing part. Each embedded frame has one containing frame; each containing frame can have one or more embedded frames.

containing part. The part in which a frame is embedded. Each embedded frame has one containing part; each containing part has one or more embedded frames.

containment. A relationship between objects wherein an object of one class contains a reference to an object of another class. Compare inheritance.

content. See part content.

content area. The potentially visible area of a part as viewed in a frame or window. If the content area is greater than the area of the frame or window, only a portion of the part can be viewed at a time.

content element. A user-visible data item presented by a part's content model. Content elements can be manipulated through the graphical or scripting interface to a part.

content extent. The vertical dimension of the content area of a part in a frame. Content extent is used to calculate bias transforms.

content model. The specification of a part's contents (the data types of its content elements) and its content operations (the actions that can be performed on it and the interactions among its content elements).

content object. A content element that can be represented as an object and thus accessed and manipulated through semantic events.

content operation. A user action that manipulates a content element.

content storage unit. The main storage unit of the Clipboard, drag-and-drop object, link source object, or link object.

content transform. The composite transform that converts from a part's content coordinates to its canvas coordinates.

content view type. A view type in which all or a portion of a part's contents is visible within a frame. Other possible view types for displaying a part include icon, small icon, and thumbnail. Content view type is sometimes called frame view type or frame display, although all view types use frames.

conventional application. An application that directly handles events and opens documents, and is wholly responsible for manipulating, storing, and retrieving all of the data in its documents. Compare component.

coordinate bias. The difference between a given coordinate system and platform- normal coordinates. Coordinate bias typically involves both a change in axis polarity and an offset.

current draft. The most recent draft of a document. Only the current draft can be edited.

CORBA. See Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA)

current frame. During drawing, the frame that is being drawn or within which editing is occurring.

customizable. Characteristic of a scriptable part that also defines content objects and operations for interface elements such as menus and buttons.

D  

derived class. See subclass.

descendant. See subclass.

destination content. The content at the destination of a link. It is a copy of the source content.

destination part. A part that displays, through a link, information that resides in another part (the source part).

dispatcher. The OpenDoc object that directs user events and semantic events to the correct part.

dispatch module. An OpenDoc object used by the dispatcher to dispatch events of a certain type to part editors.

display frame. A frame in which a part is displayed. A part's display frames are created by and embedded in its containing part. Compare embedded frame.

document. In OpenDoc, a user-organized collection of parts, all stored together.

document part. See part.

document process. A thread of execution that runs the document shell program. The document process provides the interface between the operating system and part editors: it accepts events from the operating system, provides the address space into which parts are read, and provides access to the window system and other features.

document shell. A program that provides an environment for all the parts in a document. The shell maintains the major document global databases: storage, window state, arbitrator, and dispatcher. This code also provides basic document behavior like document creation, open, save, print, and close. OpenDoc provides a default document shell for each platform.

document window. A window that displays an OpenDoc document. The edges of the content area of the window represent the frame border of the document's root part. The OpenDoc document shell manages opening and closing document windows. Compare part window.

draft. A configuration of a document, defined at a certain point in time by the user. A document is made up of a set of drafts.

drag and drop. A facility of OpenDoc that allows users to apply direct manipulation to move or copy data.

drag-copy. A drag-and-drop operation in which the dragged data remains at the source, and a copy is inserted at the destination.

drag-move. A drag-and-drop operation in which the dragged data is deleted from the source and inserted at the destination.

drawing canvas. See canvas.

DSOM. Distributed System Object Model, a version of SOM that works transparently over a network.

dynamic canvas. A drawing canvas that can potentially be changed, such as a window that can be scrolled or paged to display different portions of a part's data. Compare static canvas.

E  

edit-in-place. See in-place editing.

editor. See part editor.

editor of last resort. The part editor that displays any part for which there is no available part editor on the system. The editor of last resort typically displays a gray rectangle representing the part's frame.

editor preferences. A dialog box, accessed through the Edit menu, in which the user can view and change preferences for the part editor of the currently active part.

embed. To place one part within another so that, although its data is stored with the containing part's data and its frame is contained within the containing part's frame, it retains its identity as a separate part. Compare incorporate.

embedded content. Content displayed in an embedded frame. A part editor does not directly manipulate embedded content. Compare intrinsic content.

embedded frame. A frame within which an embedded part is displayed. The embedded frame itself is considered intrinsic content of the containing part; the part displayed within the frame is considered embedded content of the containing part.

embedded-frames list. A containing part's private list of all the frames embedded within it.

embedded part. A part that is embedded in another part. The data for an embedded part is stored within the same draft as its containing part. An embedded part is copied during a duplication of its containing part. An embedded part may itself be a containing part, unless it is a nonembedding part.

embedding application. See container application.

embedding part. A part that is capable of embedding other parts within its content. Compare nonembedding part.

event. See user event. Compare semantic event.

event structure. A platform-specific structure that carries information about an OpenDoc user event.

exception. An execution error or abnormal condition detected by the runtime facilities of the system.

exclusive focus. A focus that can be owned by only one frame at a time. The selection focus, for example, is exclusive; the user can edit within only one frame at a time. Compare non-exclusive focus.

extension. An OpenDoc object that extends the programming interface of another OpenDoc object. Part editors, for example, can provide additional interfaces through extensions.

externalize. See write.

external transform. A transform that is applied to a facet to position, scale, or otherwise transform the facet and the image drawn within it. The external transform locates the facet in the coordinate space of its frame's containing part. Compare internal transform.

extracted draft. A draft that is extracted from a document into a new document.

F  

facet. An object that describes where a frame is displayed on a canvas.

factory method. A method in one class that creates an instance of another class.

fidelity. The faithfulness of translation attained (or attainable) between data of different part kinds. For a given part kind, other part kinds are ranked in fidelity by the level at which their editors can translate its data without loss.

focus. A designation of a shared resource such as menus, selection, keystrokes, and serial ports. The part that owns a focus has use of that shared resource.

focus module. An OpenDoc object used by the arbitrator to assign an owner or owners to a given focus type.

focus set. A group of focuses requested as a unit.

frame. A bounded portion of the content area of a part, defining the location of an embedded part. The edge of a frame marks the boundary between intrinsic content and embedded content. A frame can be a rectangle or any other, even irregular, shape.

frame border. A visual indication of the boundary of a frame. The appearance of the frame border indicates the state of the frame (active, inactive, or selected). The frame border is drawn and manipulated by the containing part or by OpenDoc, not by the part within the frame.

frame coordinate space. The coordinate space in which a part's frame shape, used shape, active shape, and clip shape are defined.

frame group. A set of its display frames that a part designates as related, for purposes such as flowing content from one frame to another. Each frame group has its own group ID; frames within a frame group have a frame sequence.

frame negotiation. The process of adjusting the size and shape of an embedded frame. Embedded parts can request changes to their frames, but the containing parts control the changes that are granted.

frame sequence. The order of frames in a frame group.

frame shape. A shape that defines a frame and its border, expressed in terms of the frame's local coordinate space.

frame transform. The composite transform that converts from a part's frame coordinates to its canvas coordinates

frame view type. See content view type.

frame display. See content view type.

fully scriptable. Characteristic of a scriptable part in which semantic events can invoke any action a user might be able to perform.

G  

graphics system. A specific drawing architecture. Some graphics systems (such as Display PostScript) are available on more than one platform; some platforms support more than one graphics system.

group ID. A number that identifies a frame group, assigned by the group's containing part.

I  

icon display. See icon view type.

icon view type. A view type in which a part is represented by a 32-by-32-pixel bitmap image. Other possible view types for displaying a part include small icon, thumbnail, and content view.

identity transform. A transform that has no effect on points to which it

inclusions list. A list of part kinds that can be embedded in a given part. A part can define and use its own inclusions list in order to restrict embedding into itself.

incorporate. To merge the data from one part into the contents of another part so that the merged data retains no separate identity as a part. Compare embed.

inheritance. A relationship between classes wherein one class (the subclass) shares the type and methods of another class (the superclass).

in-place editing. Manipulation by a user of data in an embedded part without leaving the context of the document in which the part is displayed--without, for example, opening a new window for the part.

inside-out activation:. A mode of user interaction in which a mouse click anywhere in a document activates the smallest possible enclosing frame and performs the appropriate selection action on the content element at the click location. OpenDoc uses inside-out selection. Compare outside-in activation.

instance. See object.

instantiate. To cause an object of a class to be created in memory at runtime.

Interface Definition Language (IDL). A syntax created by IBM to describe the interface of classes that can be compiled by the SOM compiler.

internalize. See read.

internal transform. A transform that positions, scales, or otherwise transforms the image of a part drawn within a frame. Compare external transform.

interoperability. Access to an OpenDoc part or document from different platforms or with different software systems.

intrinsic content. The content elements native to a particular part, as opposed to the content of parts embedded within it. Compare embedded content.

invalidate. To mark an area of a canvas (or facet, or frame) as in need of redrawing.

invalid shape. The area of a frame, facet, or canvas that needs redrawing. Update events cause redrawing of the invalid area.

invariant. An aspect of the internal state of an object that must be maintained for the object to behave properly according to its design.

ISO string. A null-terminated 7-bit ASCII string.

K  

keystroke focus. The destination of keystroke events. The part whose frame has the keystroke focus handles keystroke events. See also selection focus.

keystroke focus frame. The frame to which keystroke events are to be

kind. See part kind.

L  

layout. The process of arranging frames and content elements in a document for drawing.

link. (1) A persistent reference to a part or to a set of content elements of a part. (2) An OpenDoc object that represents a link destination.

link destination. The portion of a part's content area that represents the destination of a link.

link source. The portion of a part's content area that represents the source of a link.

link specification. An object, placed on the Clipboard or in a drag-and-drop object, from which the source part (the part that placed the data) can construct a link if necessary.

link status. The link-related state (in a link source, in a link destination, or not in a link) of a frame.

lock. To acquire exclusive access to. A part must lock a link source object or link object before accessing its data.

M  

main storage unit. The storage unit that holds the contents property (ODPropContents) of a part. A part's main storage unit, plus possibly other auxiliary storage units referenced from it, holds all of a part's content.

member function. See method.

message. See semantic event.

message interface. An OpenDoc object that provides an interface to allow parts to send messages (semantic events) to other parts, in the same document or in other documents.

method. An function that manipulates the data of a particular class of objects.

modal focus. The right to display modal dialog boxes. A part displaying a modal dialog must first obtain the modal focus, is finished.

monitor. A special use of a dispatch module, in which it is installed in order to be notified of events, but does not dispatch them.

monolithic application. See conventional application.

N  

name resolver. An OpenDoc object that determines the proper recipient of a semantic event. The name resolver can resolve object specifiers, permitting semantic events to be sent to individual objects within a part.

name space. An object consisting of a set of text strings used to identify kinds of objects or classes of behavior, for code-binding purposes. For example, OpenDoc uses name spaces to identify part kinds and categories, and to identify object extensions.

name-space manager. An OpenDoc object that creates and deletes name

noncontainer part. A part that cannot itself contain embedded parts. Compare container part.

nonexclusive focus. A focus that can be owned by more than one frame at a time. OpenDoc supports the use of nonexclusive foci. Compare exclusive focus.

nonpersistent frame. A frame that exists as an object in memory, but has no storage unit and is not stored persistently.

O  

object. A programming entity, existing in memory at run time, that is an individual specimen of a particular class.

object specifier. A designation of a content object within a part, used to determine the target of a semantic event. Object specifiers can be names ("blue rectangle") or logical designations ("word 1 of line 2 of embedded frame 3").

OLE 2.0. Object Linking and Embedding, Microsoft Corporation's compound document architecture.

Open Linking and Embedding of Objects (OLEO). A technology that enables seamless interoperability between OpenDoc and Microsoft Corporation's Object Linking and Embedding (OLE 2.0) technology for interapplication communication. It allows OLE 2.0 objects to function automatically as parts in OpenDoc documents, and OpenDoc parts to function automatically as OLE objects in OLE 2.0 containers.

Open Scripting Architecture (OSA). An architecture of messages (semantic events) and handlers that allows users to control parts by means of scripts. Any scripting language that supports the OSA can be used with OpenDoc parts.

outside-in activation. A mode of user interaction in which a mouse click anywhere in a document activates the largest possible enclosing frame that is not already active. Compare inside-out activation.

overlaid frame. An embedded frame that floats above the content (including other embedded frames) of its containing part, and thus need not engage in frame negotiation with the containing part.

override. To replace a method belonging to a superclass with a method of the same name in a subclass, in order to modify its behavior.

owner. For a canvas, the part that created the canvas and attached it to a facet. The owner is responsible for transferring the results of drawing on the canvas to its parent canvas.

P  

parent canvas. The canvas closest above a canvas in the facet hierarchy. If there is a single offscreen canvas attached to an embedded facet in a window, for example, the window canvas (attached to the root facet) is the parent of the offscreen canvas.

parent class. See superclass.

part. A portion of a compound document; it consists of document content, plus, at runtime, a part editor that manipulates that content. The content is data of a given structure or type, such as text, graphics, or video; the code is a part editor. In programming terms, a part is an object, an instantiation of a subclass of the class ODPart. To a user, a part is a single set of information displayed and manipulated in one or more frames or windows. Same as document part.

part category. A general classification of the format of data handled by a part editor. Categories are broad classes of data format, meaningful to end-users, such as "text", "graphics" or "table". Compare part kind.

part content. The portion of a part that describes its data. in programming terms, the part content is represented by the instance variables of the part object; it is the state of the part, and is the portion of it that is stored persistently. To the user, there is no distinction between part and part content; the user considers both the part content alone, and the content plus its part editor, as a part. See also intrinsic content, embedded content. Compare part editor; part.

part editor. An OpenDoc component that can display and change the data of a part. It is the executable code that provides the behavior for the part. Compare part viewer.

part ID. An identifier that uniquely names a part within the context of a document. This ID represents a storage unit ID within a particular draft of a document.

part info. (1) Part-specific data, of any type or size, used by a part editor to identify what should be displayed in a particular frame or facet and how it should be displayed. (2) User-visible information about a given part, displayed in a dialog box accessed through a menu command.

part kind. A specific classification of the format of data handled by a part editor. A kind specifies the specific data format handled by, and possibly native to, a part editor. Compare part category.

part property. One of a set of user-accessible characteristics of a part or its frame. The user can modify some part properties, such as the name of a part; the user cannot modify some other part properties, such as part category. Each part property is stored as a distinct property in the storage unit of the part or its frame.

part viewer. A part editor that can display and print, but not change, the data of a part. Compare part editor.

part window. A window that displays an embedded part by itself, for easier viewing or editing. Any part that is embedded in another part can be opened up into its own part window. The part window is separate from, and has a slightly different appearance than, the document window displaying the entire document the part is embedded within.

persistence. The quality of an entity such as a part, link, or object, that allows it to span separate document launches and transport to different computers. For example, a part written to persistent storage is typically written to a hard disk.

persistent reference. A number, stored somewhere within a storage unit, that refers to another storage unit in the same document. Persistent references permit complex runtime object relationships to be stored externally, and later reconstructed.

platform. A hardware/software operating environment. For example, OpenDoc is implemented on the Macintosh, Windows, and OS/2 platforms.

platform-normal coordinates. The native coordinate system for a particular platform. OpenDoc performs all layout and drawing in platform-normal coordinates; to convert from another coordinate system to platform-normal coordinates requires application of a bias transform.

position code. A parameter (to a storage unit's Focus method) with which you specify the desired property or value to access.

presentation. A particular style of display for a part's contents--for example, outline or expanded for text, or wire-frame or solid for graphic objects. A part can have multiple presentations, each with its own rendering, layout, and user-interface behavior. Compare view type.

presentation space. The area inside a window. The borders for this area is the scroll bars or the window border on the sides and the bottom and the menu bar or the title bar at the top. The canvas is an area inside the presentation space. See canvas.

promise. A specification of data to be transferred at a future time. If a data transfer involves a very large amount of data, the source part can choose to put out a promise instead of actually writing the data to a storage unit.

property. In the OpenDoc storage system, an element of a storage unit. A property defines a kind of information (such as "name" or "contents") and contains one or more data streams, called values, that consist of information of that kind. Properties in a stored part are accessible without the assistance of a part editor. See also part property.

protocol. The programming interface through which a specific task or set of related tasks is performed. The drag-and-drop protocol, for example, is the set of calls that a part editor makes (and responds to) in order to support the dragging of items into or out of its content.

proxy content. data, associated with a single embedded frame written to the Clipboard (or drag-and-drop object or link-source object), that the frame's original containing part wanted associated with the frame, such as a drop shadow or other visual adornment. Proxy content is absent if intrinsic content as well as an embedded frame was written.

purge. To free non-critical memory, usually by writing or releasing cached data. In low-memory situations, OpenDoc can ask a part editor or other objects to purge memory.

R  

read. For a part or other OpenDoc object, to transform its persistent form in a storage unit into an appropriate in-memory representation, which can be a representation of the complete object or only a subset of it, depending on the current display requirements for the object. Same as internalize; compare write.

recordable. A level of scripting support of a part, it allows the user to automatically convert user actions into scripts attached to the part. Compare scriptable, tinkerable.

reference. A pointer to (or other representation of) an object, used to gain access to the object when needed.

reference count. The number of references to an object. Objects that are reference-counted, such as windows and parts, cannot be deleted from memory unless their reference counts are zero.

release. To delete a reference to an object. For a reference-counted object, releasing it decrements its reference count.

remove. For a frame, to permanently delete it from its document, as well as from memory. Compare close.

revert. To return a draft to the state it had just after its last save.

root facet. The facet that displays the root frame in a document

root frame. The frame in which the root part of a document is displayed. The root frame shape is the same as the content area of the document window.

root part. The part that forms the base of a document and establishes its basic editing, embedding, and printing behavior. A document has only one root part, which can contain content elements and perhaps other, embedded parts. Any part can be a root part.

root storage unit. See content storage unit.

root window. See document window.

S  

save. To write all the data of all parts of a document (draft) to persistent storage.

script. A sequence of written instructions that, when executed by a script interpreter, are converted to semantic events that manipulate parts.

scriptable. A level of scripting support of a part, it means that the part is able to accept semantic events for its publicly published content objects an operations. Compare tinkerable, recordable.

select. To designate as the locus of subsequent editing operations. If the user selects an embedded part, that part's frame border takes on an appearance that designates it as selected. The embedded part itself is not activated at this stage.

selection focus. The location of editing activity. The part whose frame has the selection focus is the active part, and has the selection or insertion point. See also keystroke focus.

semantic event. A message sent to a part or one of its content elements. Semantic events pertain directly to the part's content model and can have meaning independent of the part's display context. For example, semantic events could direct a part to get, set, or delete data. Compare user event. See also Open Scripting Architecture.

semantic interface. A set of OpenDoc objects that provides an interface to allow parts to receive messages (semantic events) from other parts, in the same document or in other documents.

sequence number. A number that defines the position of a frame in its frame group.

shape. A description of a geometric area of a drawing canvas.

shared resource. A facility used by multiple parts. Examples of shared resources are the menu focus, selection focus, keystroke focus, and serial ports. See also arbitrator.

sibling. A frame or facet at the same level of embedding as another frame or facet within the same containing frame or facet. Sibling frames and facets are z-ordered to allow for overlapping.

small icon view type. A view type in which a part is represented by a 16-by-16-pixel bitmap image. Other possible view types for displaying a part include icon, thumbnail, and content view.

SOM. See System Object Model.

source content. The content at the source of a link. It is copied into the link and thence into the destination content.

source frame. (1) An embedded frame whose part that has been opened up into its own part window. (2) The frame to which other synchronized frames are attached.

source part. A part that contains information that is displayed in another part through a link. Compare destination part.

split-frame view. A display technique for windows or frames, in which two or more facets of a frame display different scrolled portions of a part's content.

static canvas. A drawing canvas that cannot be changed once it has been rendered, such as a printer page. Compare dynamic canvas.

stationery. A part that opens by copying itself and opening the copy into a window, leaving the original stationery part unchanged.

storage system. The OpenDoc mechanism for providing persistent storage for documents and parts. The storage system object must provide unique identifiers for parts as well as cross-document links. It stores parts as a set of standard properties plus type-specific content data.

storage unit. In the OpenDoc storage system, an object that represents the basic unit of persistent storage. Each storage unit has a list of properties, and each property contains one or more data streams called values.

storage-unit cursor. A preset storage unit/property/value designation, created to allow swift focusing on frequently accessed data.

storage unit ID. A unique runtime identifier of a storage unit within a draft.

storage-unit view. A storage unit prefocused on a given property and value. A storage-unit view provides thread-safe access to a storage unit.

strong persistent reference. A persistent reference that, when the storage unit containing the reference is cloned, causes the referenced storage unit to be copied also. Compare weak persistent reference.

subclass. A class derived from another class (its superclass), from which it inherits type and behavior. Also called derived class or descendant.

subframe. A frame that is both an embedded frame in, and a display frame of, a part. A part can create an embedded frame, make it a subframe of its own display frame, and then display itself in that subframe.

subsystem. A broad subdivision of the interface and capabilities of OpenDoc, divided along shared-library boundaries. The OpenDoc subsystems include shell, storage, layout, imaging, user events, and semantic events. Individual OpenDoc subsystems are replaceable.

superclass. A class from which another class (its subclass) is derived. Also called ancestor, base class, or parent class. See also inheritance.

swap token. A special Apple events token that signals OpenDoc of an object accessor's failure furnish a required token. Passing a swap token causes a switch in the context of object resolution.

synchronized frames. Separate frames that display the same representation of the same part, and should therefore be updated together. In general, if an embedded part has two or more editable display frames of the same presentation, those frames (and all their embedded frames) should be synchronized.

System Object Model (SOM). A technology from International Business Machines, Inc., that provides language- and platform-independent means of defining programmatic objects and handling method dispatching dynamically at runtime.

T  

terminology resource. A Macintosh resource (of type 'aete') that is required for scriptability.

thumbnail view type. A view type in which a part is represented by a large (64-by-64 pixels) bitmap image that is typically a miniature representation of the layout of the part content. Other possible view types for displaying a part include icon, small icon, and content view type.

tinkerable. A level of scripting support of a part, it allows the user to customize the part, changing its behavior during virtually any user action. Compare scriptable, recordable.

token. (1) A short, codified representation of a string. The session object creates tokens for ISO strings.

transform. A geometric transformation that can be applied to a graphic object when it is rendered, such as moving, scaling, or rotation. Different platforms and different graphics systems have transforms with different capabilities.

translation. The conversion of one type of data to another type of data. Specifically, the conversion of data of one part kind to data of another part kind. The translation object is an OpenDoc wrapper for platform- specific translation capabilities. Note that translation can involve loss of fidelity.

translator. A software utility, independent of OpenDoc, that converts data from one format to another. A translator may, for example, convert text in the format used by one word processor into a format readable by a different one. The translation capability of OpenDoc relies on the availability of translators.

U  

undo. To rescind a command, negating its results. The Undo object is an object that holds command history information in order to support the Undo capability of OpenDoc.

used shape. A shape that describes the portion of a frame that a part actually uses for drawing; that is, the part of the frame that the containing part should not draw over.

user event. A message, sent to a part by the dispatcher, that pertains only to the state of the part's graphical user interface, not directly to its contents. User events include mouse clicks and keystrokes, and they deliver information about, among other things, window locations and scroll bar positions. Compare semantic event.

user-interface part. A part without content elements, representing a unit of a document's user interface. Buttons and dialog boxes, for example, can be user-interface parts.

V  

validate. To mark a portion of a canvas (or facet, or frame) as no longer in need of redrawing. Compare invalidate.

value. In the OpenDoc storage system, a data stream associated with a property in a storage unit. Each property has a set of values, and there can be only one value of a given data type for each property.

viewer. See part viewer.

view type. The basic visual representation of a part. Supported view types include icon, small icon, thumbnail, and content view.

W  

weak persistent reference. A persistent reference that, when the storage unit containing the reference is cloned, is ignored; the referenced storage unit is not copied. Compare strong persistent reference.

window. An area of a computer display in which information is presented to users in a graphic user interface, typically containing one or more content areas and controls, such as scroll bars, enabling the user to manipulate the display. Window systems are platform-specific.

window canvas. The canvas attached to the root facet of a window. Every window has a window canvas.

window-content transform. The composite transform that converts from a part's content coordinates to its window coordinates.

window-frame transform. The composite transform that converts from a part's frame coordinates to its window coordinates.

window state. An object that lists the set of windows that are open at a given time. Part editors can alter the window state, and the window state can be persistently stored.

write. For a part or other OpenDoc object, to transform its in-memory representation into a persistent form in a storage unit. Same as externalize; compare read.

Z  

z-ordering. The front-to-back ordering of sibling frames used to determine clipping and event handling when frames overlap.

IBM BookManager« BookServer Copyright 1989, 1999 IBM Corporation. All rights reserved.