_______________________________________________________________________ Preface 1 ________________________________________________________________________ PREFACE ABOUT THE PADTALK REFERENCE GUIDE This manual is a complete reference to the PADtalk scripting language, as well as a technical guide to the HyperPAD authoring environment. The first three chapters are for the beginning PADtalk programmer. They explain how to script using the Script Editor, how scripts receive messages via handlers and functions, how to write PADtalk statements, and how messages are passed between objects. The next six chapters present advanced topics for the intermediate PADtalk programmer including containers, flow control structures, chunking expressions, numeric operators, and colors. The last four chapters contain full descriptions of each PADtalk message, command, property, and function. CHAPTER SUMMARIES CHAPTER ONE: WHAT'S REALLY HAPPENING? A look behind the scenes in HyperPAD, including the different components of the HyperPAD authoring environment and an introduction to the PADtalk scripting language. CHAPTER TWO: PADTALK SCRIPTS How to use the Script Editor to write scripts and PADtalk statements. CHAPTER THREE: THE OBJECT HIERARCHY A look at HyperPAD's object hierarchy, the path along which messages are passed. CHAPTER FOUR: CONTAINERS The places in HyperPAD where values can be stored. CHAPTER FIVE: THE CURRENT OBJECT Detailed discussion of HyperPAD facilities for referencing special objects like the object with the focus, the object that initially receives a message, and the object whose script is executing. _______________________________________________________________________ Preface 2 ________________________________________________________________________ CHAPTER SIX: CONTROL STRUCTURES How to control the flow of execution of the statements within a script through the use of control structures. CHAPTER SEVEN: CHUNK EXPRESSIONS How to work with chunk expressions, special PADtalk constructs that allow you to specify any piece of information in a container. CHAPTER EIGHT: NUMERIC OPERATORS How to add complex expressions to your scripts. CHAPTER NINE: COLORS How colors are referred to in HyperPAD and displayed on the screen by your computer. CHAPTER TEN: MESSAGES A complete reference to the messages generated by HyperPAD, including a detailed description of each message. CHAPTER ELEVEN: COMMANDS An alphabetical listing of every built-in command available in PADtalk. Each command's description includes its syntax and examples. CHAPTER TWELVE: PROPERTIES The full list of HyperPAD properties, are used to control the appearance and behavior of objects. The properties of buttons, fields, pages, backgrounds, pads, the message box, the menu bar, the status bar, and the tool box are described. CHAPTER THIRTEEN: FUNCTIONS A complete list and discussion of HyperPAD's built-in functions. _______________________________________________________________________ Preface 3 ________________________________________________________________________ NOTATION CONVENTIONS As you read this manual, keep in mind the following notational conventions. All PADtalk words are displayed in courier type, like: openPage, graphicsCard(), and sort. Words that appear within angle brackets (< >) are required to complete the PADtalk statement. For example, indicates that you must supply a filename. Words that appear within square brackets ([ ]) are optional parameters which may be included if you need them. PADtalk is not case sensitive. For example OpenPage, openPage, and openPage refer to the same word. In this manual, however, all PADtalk language elements begin with a lowercase character. Any elements consisting of more than one word also begin with a lowercase character; any word within a language element, however, is capitalized. Examples: openPage, graphicsCard, insertPoint.