One of the most useful and powerful features in CFG, and something that sets it apart from other fractal programs, is its scriptability. Extensive support has been added to CFG to support UserLand Frontier and AppleScript. CFG also supports shared menus with Frontier.
Scripting is accomplished through the use of Apple Events. A script is written and executed from a client application (such as Frontier or Script Editor). The client application executes the commands in the script, converting any CFG specific commands into Apple Events which are sent to CFG for processing. One may execute scripts from the client application's environment, shared menus (see the Shared Menus section below) or the Quick Script dialog box in CFG (Quick Script command from the Special menu). These last two methods are available only from Frontier.
The Quick Script dialog box is similar to the one that exists in Frontier. The user may enter a script of up to 255 characters in this dialog and have Frontier execute the commands by striking the Run button. The result of script execution is shown below the words "Response:". The Done button discards the dialog.
NOTE that commands targeted for CFG cannot be executed from this dialog box. When the Quick Script dialog box is visible, all Apple Event processing is put on hold (except the events that CFG sends to Frontier to execute the script). Therefore, unpredictable results will occur when trying to execute CFG commands from this dialog box. (Executing CFG commands from the shared menus is perfectly safe).
The data that Frontier needs to support CFG is located in the CFG & Frontier folder. All command documentation will be installed in the DocServer database and additional information is located in the CFG Scripting Guide.
