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Apple Events
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Apple Events
Alpha has very extensive support for scripting and inter-application
communication.
1) Alpha is completely scriptable in Tcl, which is far better suited for
internal scripting than AppleScript.
2) Alpha accepts the required apple events, plus 'dosc', which is used
to tell Alpha to execute a Tcl script.
3) Alpha has a command, AEBuild, which allows arbitrarily complicated
apple events to be built and sent.
4) Queue'd replies of messages sent by AEBuild are AEPrint'd and passed
to the tcl proc handleReply (in :Tcl:SystemCode:appleEvents.tcl).
5) Alpha has several internal handlers to support interaction with
Think, but basically the entire interface is done in Tcl using
AEBuild. Compiler errors are parsed and passed to
'handleThinkReply'.
================================================================================
The following is a text version of the AEBuild/AEPrint docs. The
Word-formatted original is included in :Misc.
Apple Events The Æ Builder/Printer
Version 1.3.3
Jens Peter Alfke
11 October 1993
AppleScript Team
© Apple Computer, Inc. 1991–1993
Contents
Contents iii
Introduction 1
OK, What Is It? 1
What’s New? 2
How To Call the Functions 3
AEBuild 3
AEBuildParameters 4
AEBuildAppleEvent 4
AEPrint 5
Descriptor-String Syntax 6
Basic Types 6
Coercion 7
Lists 8
Records 8
Apple Events 9
Substituting Parameters 10
Descriptor-String Grammar 11
An Example & Timing Comparison 13
C Code Using Object-Packing Library 13
Descriptor String 15
AEBuild Call 16
Timing Conclusions 17
The Demo Program 18
The Header Files 19
AEBuild.h 19
AEBuildGlobals.h 20
AEPrint.h 20
Introduction
OK, What Is It?
Even with the helpful Object Support Library routines that assemble common
Apple event object descriptors, building descriptors and events is still a pain. I’ve
written a library of two functions that make it quick and easy to build or display
Apple event descriptors and the Apple events themselves.
The AEBuild function takes a format string — a description in a very simple
language of an Apple event descriptor — and generates a real descriptor (which
could be a record or list or event) out of it. The AEPrint function does the reverse:
given an Apple event descriptor, list or record, it prettyprints it to a string. (The
resulting string, if sent to AEBuild, would reproduce the original AEDesc
structure.)
AEBuild can plug variable parameters into the structures it generates — as with
printf, all you do is put marker characters in the format string and supply the
parameter values as extra function arguments.
The benefits of using this library are fourfold:
i It’s easier for you to write the code to build Apple event structures. You
only have to remember one function call and a few simple syntax rules.
Your resulting code is also easier to understand.
i As of version 1.2, your code is even faster: AEBuild is three to four times
as fast as the regular Apple Event Manager routines at constructing
complex structures. (Your mileage may vary.)
i Your code is smaller: the code for AEBuild and the AEStream library is
about 6k in size, and the overhead for each call is minimal. (Most of the
descriptor string consists of the same four-letter codes you’d be using in
your program code anyway, and the strings can even be stored in
resources for more code savings.)
i AEPrint helps in debugging programs, by turning mysterious AEDesc
structures into human-readable text.
What’s New?
In version 1.3:
• A new function, AEPrintSize, computes how long the string built by AEPrint
would be, without actually creating it. This is useful if you want to allocate
storage for the string dynamically.
• AEPrint no longer truncates hex dumps (of unknown descriptors) after 32
bytes.
And in version 1.3.2:
• AEPrint no longer uses the stdio library. This should help reduce code size
(and eliminate some problems in code resources) but to do it I had to cripple
floating-point display. Floating-point descriptors now print as the integer part
followed by “.XXXX”.
And in version 1.3.3:
• After a brilliant suggestion by Rob Dye, AEPrint now uses the built in float-
to-text coercion to display floating-point descriptors.
• Fixed a possible problem with AEBuild input strings containing Return
characters, in the MPW version of the library.
How To Call the Functions
These are all C functions. They all take variable number s of arguments, so they’d
be difficult or impossible to call from Pascal, anyway. (And remember, kids: there
are no Pascal compilers for the PowerPC chip…)
AEBuild
OSErr
AEBuild( AEDesc *desc, const char *descriptorStr, ... ),
vAEBuild( AEDesc *desc, const char *descriptorStr, void *args );
AEBuild reads a null-terminated descriptor string (usually a constant, although it
could come from anywhere), parses it and builds a corresponding AEDesc
structure. (Don’t worry, I’ll describe the syntax of the descriptor string in the
next section.) If the descriptor string contains magic parameter-substitution
characters (“@”) then corresponding values of the correct type must be supplied
as function arguments, just as with printf.
(vAEBuild is analogous to vprintf: Instead of passing the parameters along with
the function, you supply a va_list, as defined in <stdarg.h>, that points to the
parameter list. It’s otherwise identical.)
AEBuild returns an OSErr. Any errors returned by Apple Event Manager routines
while building the descriptor will be sent back to you. The most likely results are
memFullErr and errAECoercionFail. Also likely is aeBuildSyntaxErr, resulting
from an incorrect descriptor string. (Make sure to debug your descriptor strings,
perhaps using the demo application, before you put them in programs!)
The basic version of AEBuild just reports that a syntax error occurred, without
giving any additional information. If you want to know more (perhaps the string
came from a user, to whom you’d like to report a helpful error message) you can
use the other version of the library. This version includes a wee bit of extra code,
and two global variables that will contain useful information after a syntax error:
extern AEBuild_SyntaxErrType
AEBuild_ErrCode;
extern long
AEBuild_ErrPos;
AEBuild_ErrCode is an enumerated value that will contain a specific error code.
The error codes are defined in AEBuild.h. AEBuild_ErrPos will contain the index
into the descriptor string at which the error occurred: usually one character past
the end of the offending token.
AEBuildParameters
OSErr AEBuildParameters( AppleEvent *event, const char *descriptorStr, ... );
AEBuildParameters adds parameters and/or attributes to an existing Apple
event. descriptorStr specifies the parameters (required and optional) and
attributes. Its syntax is described below (see especially the Apple Event
Descriptor Strings subsection); it’s almost the same as the syntax for AEBuild,
with a few additions and modifications.
(vAEBuildParameters is analogous to vprintf: Instead of passing the parameters
along with the function, you supply a va_list, as defined in <stdarg.h>, that
points to the parameter list. It’s otherwise identical.)
AEBuildAppleEvent
AEBuildAppleEvent( AEEventClass theClass, AEEventID theID,
DescType addressType, void *addressData, long addressLength,
short returnID, long transactionID,
AppleEvent *event,
const char *descriptorStr, ... );
AEBuildAppleEvent is like AEBuild but builds an Apple event, including
parameters and attributes. Or, you could say that it’s like AEBuildParameters but
creates the event from scratch.
Most of the parameters are just like the parameters to AECreateAppleEvent,
although you pass the target address data directly, instead of via a pre-built
descriptor. The resulting Apple event will appear in the event parameter.
descriptorStr specifies the parameters (required and optional) and attributes.
The syntax is described below (see especially the Apple Event Descriptor Strings
subsection); it’s almost the same as the syntax for AEBuild, with a few additions
and modifications.
(vAEBuildAppleEvent is analogous to vprintf: Instead of passing the parameters
along with the function, you supply a va_list, as defined in <stdarg.h>, that
points to the parameter list. It’s otherwise identical.)
AEPrint
OSErr AEPrint( AEDesc *desc, char *bufStr, long bufSize );
AEPrint reads the Apple event descriptor desc and writes a corresponding
descriptor string into the string pointed to by bufStr. It will write no more than
bufSize characters, including the trailing null character. Any errors returned by
Apple Event Manager routines will be returned to the caller; this isn’t very likely
unless the AEDesc structure is somehow corrupt.
The descriptor string produced, if sent to AEBuild, will build a descriptor
identical to the original one. AEPrint tries to detect AERecords that have been
coerced to other types and print them as coerced records. Structures of unknown
type that can’t be coerced to AERecords are dumped as hex data.
AEPrint can also print complete Apple events as well as regular descriptors. The
syntax of the resulting string for an event is like that used by AEBuildParameters
and AEBuildAppleEvent, except that:
• The string begins with the event class and ID separated by a backslash.
• the parameter list is surrounded by curly braces.
• Attributes are also displayed; they look like parameters but are preceded by
“&”s.
u The builder functions do not accept this event syntax yet. u
AEPrintSize
OSErr AEPrintSize( AEDesc *desc, long *bufSizeNeeded );
AEPrintSize computes the buffer size that AEPrint would require if given the
same descriptor. (The size is equal to the string length, plus 1 byte for the trailing
null.) This is handy for pre-flighting AEPrint, if you want to allocate the buffer
dynamically instead of relying on one of fixed size .
Descriptor-String Syntax
The real meat of all this, of course, is the syntax of the descriptor strings. It’s
pretty simple: basic data types like numbers and strings can be described
directly, and then built up into lists and records. I’ve even provided a pseudo-
BNF grammar (next section) for those of you who actually enjoy reading those
things.
Basic Types
The fundamental data types are:
Type Examples Type-code Description
Integer 1234
-5678 'long' or
'shor' A sequence of decimal digits,
optionally preceded by a minus
sign.
Enum/Type
Code whos
longint
'long'
<=
'8-)'
‘ZQ 5’
m 'enum'
(Use coercion
to change to
'type') A magic four-letter code. Will be
truncated or padded with spaces
to exactly four characters. If you
put straight or curly single-
quotes around it, it can contain
any characters. If not, it can’t
contain any of: @‘'“”:-,([{}])
and can’t begin with a digit.
String “A String.”
“Multiple lines
are okay.” 'TEXT' Any sequence of characters
within open and close curly
quotes. Won’t be null-terminated.
Hex Data «4170706C65»
«0102 03ff
e b 6 c» ??
(Must be
coerced to
some type) An even number of hex digits
between French quotes (Option-
\, Option-Shift-\). Whitespace is
ignored.
u Yes, you have to use the actual four-letter codes for enums, type codes,
keywords and object types, instead of the mnemonic constants. Luckily the
codes are semi-mnemonic anyway. I did it this way to avoid the massive
overhead, both in code size and execution speed, of a symbol table. You can
find the definitions of the constants in the text file “AEObjects.p”, which is
part of the Apple Events Object Support Library. u
Coercion
Any basic element (except a hex string) by itself is a descriptor, whose
descriptorType is as given in the table. You can coerce a basic element to a
different type by putting it in parentheses with a type-code placed before it. Here
are some examples:
sing(1234)
type(line)
long(CODE)
hexd(“A String”)
'blob'(«4170706C65»)
u Coercions of numeric values are effected by calling AECoerceDesc; if the
coercion fails, you’ll get an errAECoercionFail error returned to you.
Coercions of other types just replace the descriptorType field of the AEDesc. u
u Hex strings must be coerced to something, since they have no intrinsic type. u
You can also coerce nothing, to get a descriptor with zero-length data:
emty()
Even the type can be omitted, leaving just (), in which case the type is 'null'.
Lists
To make an AEDescList, just enclose a comma-separated list of descriptors in
square brackets. For example:
[123, -456, “et cetera”]
[sing(1234), long(CODE),
[“wheels”, “within wheels”]]
[]
The elements of a list can be of different types, and a list can contain other lists or
records (see below) as elements.
Lists cannot be coerced to other types; the type of a list is always 'list'.
Records
An AERecord is indicated by a comma-separated list of elements enclosed in curly
braces. Each element of a record consists of a keyword (a type-code, as described
under Basic Types) followed by a “:”, followed by a value, which can be any
descriptor: a basic type, a list or another record. For example:
{x:100, y:-100}
{'origin': {x:100, y:-100}, extent: {x:500, y:500},
cont: [1, 5, 25]}
{}
The default type of a record is 'reco'. Many of the Apple Events Object Model
structures are AERecords that have been coerced to some other data type, like
'indx' or 'whos'. You can coerce a record structure to any type by preceding it
with a type code. For example:
rang{ star: 5, stop: 6}
s Warning Coercing to an existing type, such as 'bool' or 'TEXT', is a bad
idea. Anyone parsing the descriptor (including AEPrint) will
recognize the type and assume that the data has the normal
interpretation, which in this case it wouldn’t. Bad to awful things
would happen. Don’t do it.
Apple Events
The syntax of the formatting string for an entire Apple event (as passed to
AEBuildAppleEvent) is almost identical to that of a record. Each keyed element
specified in the string becomes a parameter or attribute of the event. The
differences are:
• There are no curly-braces at the beginning and end of the string.
• The character “~” before a parameter keyword makes it optional.
Here’s an example of how to construct an Open Selection event for the Finder:
AliasHandle parent, itemToOpen;
const OSType finderSignature = 'MACS';
AppleEvent event;
OSErr err;
// Construct the aliases here (not shown)
err= AEBuildEppleEvent(
'FNDR', 'SOPE',
typeApplSignature, @finderSignature, sizeof(finderSignature),
kAutoGenerateReturnID, kAnyTransactionID,
&event, // Event to be created
"----: alis(@@), fsel: [alis(@@)]", // Format string
parent, // param for 1st @@
itemToOpen // param for 2nd @@
);
Substituting Parameters
To plug your own values into the midst of a descriptor, use the magic “@”
character. You can use “@” anywhere you can put a basic element like an integer.
Each “@” is replaced by a value taken from the parameter list sent to the AEBuild
function. The type of value created depends on the context in which the “@” is
used: in particular, how it’s coerced.
Type Coerced to: Type of fn parameter read: Comments:
No coercion AEDesc* A plain “@” will be replaced with a
descriptor parameter.
Numeric (bool, shor,
long, sing, doub, exte) short, short, long, float,
short double, double Remember that THINK C’s double
corresponds to type 'exte'!
TEXT char* Pointer to a null-terminated C string.
Any other type long followed by void* Expects a length parameter followed by
a pointer to the descriptor data.
s Important Note particularly: that TEXT parameters must be null-terminated
strings, although the resulting descriptor data will not be null-
terminated; and that the general case expects two parameters: the
data’s size and location. s
In addition, you can substitute data from a handle by using two @ signs. An “@@”
parameter will read a single handle from the parameter list and use the data
pointed to by that handle as the value of the descriptor. The “@@” must be
coerced so that AEBuild will know what type to make the descriptor; however,
the type coerced to can be anything (the table above is ignored.)
This mechanism is still a bit limited, and may well be improved in the future.
Descriptor-String Grammar
Since no language, however small, can be taken seriously unless it comes fully
equipped with a formidable-looking BNF grammar specification, I here present
one. No attempt has been made to prevent Messrs. Backus and/or Naur from
rolling over in their respective graves.
Character Classification:
whitespace ‘ ’, ‘\r’, ‘\n’, ‘\t’
digit 0 … 9
paren, bracket,
braces (, ), [, ], {, }
single-quote '
double quotes “, ”
hex quotes «, »
colon :
comma ,
at-sign @
identchar any other printable character
Tokens:
ident ::= identchar (identchar | digit)* —Padded/truncated
' character* ' to exactly 4 chars
integer ::= [ - ] digit+ —Just as in C
string ::= “ (character)* ”
hexstring ::= « (hexdigit | whitespace)* » —Even no. of digits, please
Grammar Rules for AEBuild:
formatstring ::= obj —This is the top level of syntax
obj ::= data —Single AEDesc; shortcut for (data)
structure —Un-coerced structure
ident structure —Coerced to some other type
structure ::= ( data ) —Single AEDesc
[ objectlist ] —AEList type
{ keywordlist } —AERecord type
objectlist ::= «blank» —Comma-separated list of things
obj [ , obj ]*
keywordpair ::= ident : obj —Keyword/value pair
keywordlist ::= «blank» —List of said pairs
keywordpair [ , keywordpair ]*
data ::= @ —Gets appropriate data from fn param
integer —'shor' or 'long' unless coerced
ident —A 4-char type code ('type') unless coerced
string —Unterminated text; 'TEXT' type unless coerced
hexstring —Raw hex data; must be coerced to some type!
Grammar Rules for AEBuildAppleEvent:
eventstring ::= evtkeywordlist —Top level syntax for AEBuildAppleEvent
evtkeywordpair ::= [~] ident : obj —Keyword/value pair
evtkeywordlist ::= «blank» —List of said pairs
evtkeywordpair [ , evtkeywordpair ]*
There. Now it’s all crystal-clear, right?
An Example & Timing Comparison
As an example, I’ll take a C function to generate an object descriptor (taken from
a Pascal example in the Object Model ERS, fleshed out and with gobs of error
checking added) and turn it into a call to AEBuild. The object descriptor we want
to generate is:
First line of document 'Spinnaker' whose first word is 'April'
and whose second word is 'is'
Then I’ll execute both functions and compare their execution times.
C Code Using Object-Packing Library
OSErr
BuildByHand( AEDesc *dDocument, AEDesc *theResultObj )
{
OSErr err;
AEDesc dObjectExamined, dNum, dWord1, dWord2, dAprilText, dIsText,
dComparison1, dComparison2, dLogicalTerms, dTheTest, dLineOne, dTestedLines;
dObjectExamined.dataHandle = /* Zero things to start out with so we can safely */
dNum.dataHandle = /* execute our fail code if things don't work out */
dWord1.dataHandle =
dWord2.dataHandle =
dAprilText.dataHandle =
dIsText.dataHandle =
dComparison1.dataHandle =
dComparison2.dataHandle =
dLogicalTerms.dataHandle =
dTheTest.dataHandle =
dLineOne.dataHandle =
dTestedLines.dataHandle =
NIL;
if( err= AECreateDesc( 'exmn', NIL, 0, &dObjectExamined ) )
goto fail;
if( err= MakeIndexDescriptor(1,&dNum) )
goto fail;
if( err= MakeObjDescriptor( 'word', &dObjectExamined, formIndex, &dNum,
false, &dWord1) )
goto fail;
if( err= AECreateDesc( 'TEXT', "April", 5, &dAprilText ) )
goto fail;
AEDisposeDesc(&dNum);
if( err= MakeIndexDescriptor(2,&dNum) )
goto fail;
if( err= MakeObjDescriptor( 'word', &dObjectExamined, formIndex, &dNum,
true, &dWord2) )
goto fail;
if( err= AECreateDesc( 'TEXT', "is", 2, &dIsText ) )
goto fail;
if( err= MakeCompDescriptor( '= ', &dAprilText, &dWord1, true, &dComparison1 ) )
goto fail;
if( err= MakeCompDescriptor( '= ', &dIsText, &dWord2, true, &dComparison2 ) )
goto fail;
if( err= AECreateList( NIL, 0, false, &dLogicalTerms ) )
goto fail;
if( err= AEPutDesc( dLogicalTerms, 1, dComparison1 ) )
goto fail;
if( err= AEPutDesc( dLogicalTerms, 2, dComparison2 ) )
goto fail;
AEDisposeDesc(&dComparison1);
AEDisposeDesc(&dComparison2);
if( err= MakeLogicalDescriptor( &dLogicalTerms, 'AND ', true, &dTheTest) )
goto fail;
if( err= MakeObjDescriptor(classLine,&dDocument,formTest,&dTheTest,true,
&dTestedLines) )
goto fail;
if( err= MakeIndexDescriptor(1,&dLineOne) )
goto fail;
if( err= MakeObjDescriptor( classLine, &dTestedLines, formIndex, &dLineOne,
true, theResultObj ) )
goto fail;
return noErr;
fail: /* Clean up in case we couldn't build it */
AEDisposeDesc(theResultObj);
AEDisposeDesc(&dObjectExamined);
AEDisposeDesc(&dNum);
AEDisposeDesc(&dWord1);
AEDisposeDesc(&dWord2);
AEDisposeDesc(&dAprilText);
AEDisposeDesc(&dIsText);
AEDisposeDesc(&dComparison1);
AEDisposeDesc(&dComparison2);
AEDisposeDesc(&dLogicalTerms);
AEDisposeDesc(&dTheTest);
AEDisposeDesc(&dLineOne);
AEDisposeDesc(&dTestedLines);
return err;
}
MPW 3.2b5 C compiled this into 816 bytes of object code.
I found that the average time to execute this function was 0.0188 seconds
(Quadra 700) or 0.0113 seconds (IIfx).† Use this figure for comparison only; your
times may vary. The timing is especially dependent on the number of blocks in
the heap, since so many block allocations and disposals are happening.
Descriptor String
obj{ want:type('line'),
from: obj{ want: type('line'), from: @, form: 'test',
seld: logi{
term: [comp{ relo:=, obj1:“April”,
obj2:
obj{ want:type('word'), from:exmn(), form:indx, seld:1 }},
comp{ relo:=, obj1:“is”,
obj2:
obj{ want:type('word'), from:exmn(), form:indx, seld:2 }}
],
logc:AND
}
},
form: 'indx',
seld: 1
}
AEBuild Call
char descriptor[] = /* Same descriptor string as above. Note clever */
"obj{ want:type('line')," /* method used to break string across lines. */
"from: obj{ want: type('line'), from: @, form: 'test'," /* Note parameter here */
"seld: logi{"
"term: [comp{ relo:=, obj1:“April”,"
"obj2:"
"obj{ want:type('word'), from:exmn(), form:indx, seld:1 }},"
"comp{ relo:=, obj1:“is”,"
"obj2:"
"obj{ want:type('word'), from:exmn(), form:indx, seld:2 }}"
"],"
"logc:AND"
"}"
"},"
"form: 'indx',"
"seld: 1"
"}";
void PackWordDesc( AEDesc *dDocumentObject ) /* “Spinnaker” descriptor is a parameter */
{
err = AEBuild(&theResultObj,
descriptorString,
dDocumentObject); /* AEDesc* parameter for "@" */
}
MPW 3.2b5 C compiled this into 42 bytes of object code, plus 310 bytes of data
storage for the string.
I found that the average time to execute this function was 0.0049 seconds
(Quadra 700) or 0.0070 seconds (IIfx). Use this figure for comparison only; your
times may vary. The timing is dependent on the number of blocks in the heap,
since heap blocks are being allocated and resized.
Timing Conclusions
With previous versions of this library, there was a 70% increase in execution time
when using the AEBuild routine. After delivering the bad news, I wrote:
However, if speed does become an issue, there is always the option of
turbocharging AEBuild by having it directly build descriptors without going
through the Apple Event Manager functions at all. This would save an incredible
number of Memory Manager calls and probably increase performance
severalfold. Anyone using AEBuild will get all these improvements for free.
This is exactly what I did in version 1.1. In fact, I wrote a library (AEStream) to
do it, so you can do it too. It’s easy.
AEBuild is now 1.5 to 4 times as fast (depending on CPU) as the using the Apple
Event Manager and/or Object Packing Library routines. (This means that
AEStream was responsible for a threefold speed-up in AEBuild. Not bad, when
you take into account other overhead like parsing the format string!)
Needless to say, if you were already using AEBuild you get this speed increase
absolutely free. Enjoy!
The Demo Program
I’ve included a demonstration program in the distribution. This is a program I
used to debug the library. It reads a line of input, uses AEBuild to translate it into
an AEDesc, uses AEPrint to translate the AEDesc back into a string, and prints
each resulting string. Error codes are reported, including syntax-error messages.
The source code is provided in case you want to see how the functions are called.
s Warning The demo tool does not handle parameter substitution (the “@”
character). If you try to substitute parameters, messy and
unpleasant things may happen. Use some numeric value in place
of parameters, and then replace it with “@”s after you paste the
string into your program. s
The Header Files
Here for your convenience are printouts of the header files as of 21 July 1992.
AEBuild.h
#define aeBuild_SyntaxErr 12345 /* Let's get an Official OSErr code someday */
typedef enum{ /* Syntax Error Codes: */
aeBuildSyntaxNoErr = 0, /* (No error) */
aeBuildSyntaxBadToken, /* Illegal character */
aeBuildSyntaxBadEOF, /* Unexpected end of format string */
aeBuildSyntaxNoEOF, /* Unexpected extra stuff past end */
aeBuildSyntaxBadNegative, /* "-" not followed by digits */
aeBuildSyntaxMissingQuote, /* Missing close "'" */
aeBuildSyntaxBadHex, /* Non-digit in hex string */
aeBuildSyntaxOddHex, /* Odd # of hex digits */
aeBuildSyntaxNoCloseHex, /* Missing "»" */
aeBuildSyntaxUncoercedHex, /* Hex string must be coerced to a type */
aeBuildSyntaxNoCloseString, /* Missing "”" */
aeBuildSyntaxBadDesc, /* Illegal descriptor */
aeBuildSyntaxBadData, /* Bad data value inside (…) */
aeBuildSyntaxNoCloseParen, /* Missing ")" after data value */
aeBuildSyntaxNoCloseBracket, /* Expected "," or "]" */
aeBuildSyntaxNoCloseBrace, /* Expected "," or "}" */
aeBuildSyntaxNoKey, /* Missing keyword in record */
aeBuildSyntaxNoColon, /* Missing ":" after keyword in record */
aeBuildSyntaxCoercedList, /* Cannot coerce a list */
aeBuildSyntaxUncoercedDoubleAt /* "@@" substitution must be coerced */
} AEBuild_SyntaxErrType;
// In all the "v..." functions, the "args" parameter is really a va_list.
// It's listed as void* here to avoid having to #include stdarg.h.
// Building a descriptor:
OSErr
AEBuild( AEDesc *dst, const char *src, ... ),
vAEBuild( AEDesc *dst, const char *src, const void *args );
// Adding a parameter to an Apple event:
OSErr
AEBuildParameters( AppleEvent *event, const char *format, ... ),
vAEBuildParameters( AppleEvent *event, const char *format, const void *args );
// Building an entire Apple event:
OSErr
AEBuildAppleEvent( AEEventClass theClass, AEEventID theID,
DescType addressType, const void *addressData, long addressLength,
short returnID, long transactionID, AppleEvent *result,
const char *paramsFmt, ... ),
vAEBuildAppleEvent( AEEventClass theClass, AEEventID theID,
DescType addressType, const void *addressData, long addressLength,
short returnID, long transactionID, AppleEvent *resultEvt,
const char *paramsFmt, const void *args );
AEBuildGlobals.h
/*
* AEBuildGlobals.h Copyright ©1991 Apple Computer, Inc.
*/
extern AEBuild_SyntaxErrType
AEBuild_ErrCode; /* Examine after AEBuild returns a syntax error */
extern long
AEBuild_ErrPos; /* Index of error in format string */
AEPrint.h
/*
* AEPrint.h Copyright ©1991 Apple Computer, Inc.
*/
OSErr AEPrint( AEDesc *desc, char *bufStr, long bufSize );
† Yes, it really took half again as long on a Quadra! I think that cache flushing during the PACK
call is responsible. (It barely slows down at all when you disable the caches.)