Lingo in a Nutshell

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Lingo in a Nutshell

By Bruce A. Epstein

Publisher: O'Reilly Media

Released: November 1998

Pages: 631

Macromedia Director 6 is the premiere authoring tool for delivering interactive content on both the Internet and the desktop. It is the dominant multimedia package for Windows 95/NT, Windows 3.1, and the Macintosh. A quarter million developers use Director® to incorporate animation and audio into dynamic Web pages, and to create engaging interactive corporate presentations, multimedia advertising, entertainment CD-ROMs, Enhanced music CDs, and even DVDs.

Lingo is Director's powerful scripting language. This companion book toDirector in a Nutshell is an essential tool for both new and experienced Lingo programmers seeking a deeper knowledge of the language. Bruce Epstein is the author of both these books and brings years of hands-on experience with Director and Lingo. The book includes numerous useful Lingo examples. Exhaustively tested, this book corrects many errors found in Macromedia's Lingo documentation and repeated verbatim in most third-party books. Extremely comprehensive, this book details dozens of misdocumented and undocumented Lingo keywords that are omitted from Macromedia's manuals and third-party books.

Lingo in a Nutshell caters to the huge pool of Director users attempting to bridge the Lingo gap, yet provides the details for the experienced Linguist that are lacking in other Lingo books. In typical nutshell style (clear, concise, deep and narrow) this book explores the syntax, structure and commands of the Lingo language. The detailed chapters describe messages, events, scripts, handlers, variables, lists, file I/O, Behaviors, child objects, Xtras, and more. This book teaches you to troubleshoot and debug common Lingo errors. Lingo in a Nutshell is the book for which both Director users and power Lingo programmers have been yearning.

The book extensively covers topics not found in other Lingo books:

Cross-platform Lingo differences
Lingo internals for experienced programmers
Events, messages, and scripts
Timers, tempos, cue points, and synchronization
Data types and expressions
Math, numerical expressions, geometry, and trigonometry
Coordinates, alignment, and registration point

Lingo in a Nutshell is the most concise and compete guide available. It is a high-end handbook at a low-end price. An essential desktop reference for every Director user.

Lingo Basics
1. Chapter 1 How Lingo Thinks
  1. So You’re Too Busy to Learn Lingo
  2. Lingo Scripting Basics
  3. Variables and Properties
  4. Lingo’s Skeletal Structure
  5. Conditional Execution
  6. Parameters and Arguments
2. Chapter 2 Events, Messages, and Scripts
  1. Events and Messages
  2. Lingo Script Types
  3. Trapping Events with Scripts
  4. Message Processing Order
3. Chapter 3 Lingo Coding and Debugging Tips
  1. Lingo Coding Tips
  2. Zen and the Art of Debugging
  3. The Lingo Debugger
  4. A Simple Sample Debugging Session
  5. Lingo Debugging Commands
4. Chapter 4 Lingo Internals
  1. Lingo Internals
Lingo Data Types and Expressions
1. Chapter 5 Data Types and Expressions
  1. Data Types and Variable Types
  2. Operators
2. Chapter 6 Lists
  1. List Basics
  2. Lingo List Commands
  3. Commands by List Type
  4. List Utilities
  5. Other Lingo Commands That Use Lists
3. Chapter 7 Strings
  1. Strings and Chunk Expressions
4. Chapter 8 Math (and Gambling)
  1. Arithmetic Operators
  2. Math Functions
  3. Number Systems and Formats
Lingo Events
1. Chapter 9 Mouse Events
  1. Mouse Events
  2. Mouse Properties
  3. Mouse Tasks
2. Chapter 10 Keyboard Events
  1. Keyboard Events
  2. Keyboard Properties
  3. Filtering Keyboard Input
  4. Keyboard Tasks
3. Chapter 11 Timers and Dates
  1. Timers and Delays
  2. Time Units
  3. Date and Time Functions
  4. Timing Utilities
Applied Lingo
1. Chapter 12 Behaviors and Parent Scripts
  1. What Is a Behavior?
  2. Objects of Mystery
  3. Behaviors versus Other Script Types
  4. Behavior and Parent Script Lingo
2. Chapter 13 Lingo Xtras and XObjects
  1. Xtras
  2. Lingo Scripting Xtras
  3. Writing Your Own Xtras
3. Chapter 14 External Files
  1. External Files
  2. File Paths
  3. FileIO
  4. External Applications
4. Chapter 15 The MUI Dialog Xtra
  1. MUI Alert Dialogs
  2. Custom MUI Dialogs
Lingo Command Reference
1. Chapter 16 Enumerated Values
2. Chapter 17 Changed, Undocumented, and Misdocumented Lingo
  1. Underdocumented Utilities and Lingo
3. Chapter 18 Lingo Keyword and Command Summary
4. Chapter 19 The Lingo Symbol Table
  1. Why Do I Care?
Appendixes
1. Appendix ASCII Codes and Key Codes
2. Appendix Changes in D6 Through D6.5
  1. New Lingo in Director 6.5
  2. QuickTime 3 Sprite Asset Xtra
  3. QTVR 1.0 Xtra
  4. Flash Asset Xtra
  5. Custom Cursor Xtra
  6. Changes in Earlier Versions of D6
3. Appendix Case-Sensitivity, Sort Order, Diacritical Marks, and Space-Sensitivity
  1. Case-Sensitivity
  2. Diacritical Marks
  3. Space-Sensitivity
4. Appendix The DIRECTOR.INI and LINGO.INI Files
  1. DIRECTOR.INI
  2. LINGO.INI
5. Appendix Error Messages and Error Codes
  1. Lingo Compiler and Runtime Error Messages
  2. Director Error Codes
  3. FileIO Errors
  4. SWA Xtra getError(), getErrorString()
  5. Flash Asset Xtra getError()
  6. Network Errors—netError()
  7. MOA Errors

Title:

Lingo in a Nutshell

By:

Bruce A. Epstein

Publisher:

O'Reilly Media

Formats:

Print
Safari Books Online

Print:

November 1998

Pages:

631

Print ISBN:

978-1-56592-493-2

| ISBN 10:

1-56592-493-2

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Our look is the result of reader comments, our own experimentation, and feedback from distribution channels. Distinctive covers complement our distinctive approach to technical topics, breathing personality and life into potentially dry subjects. The animal on the cover of Lingo in a Nutshell is a macaw, a usually brightly colored South American parrot. Macaws include several species, ranging in size from 12 to 40 inches long; some of the most common include the blue and gold macaw (Ara ararauna) and the scarlet macaw (Ara macao). Many of these often noisy parrots can be trained to mimic human speech.

All macaws have large beaks, with the upper portion overlapping the lower. Their diet consists mainly of seeds, nuts, and fresh fruit. They have four toes, two pointing forward and two backward. Larger macaws have a lifespan of up to 75 years.

Macaws generally nest in treeholes or crevices in rocks. One of their roles in nature is the propagation of plant life; undigested seeds are carried throughout the forest in the birds' droppings. Males and females are similarly colored. Many of the macaw species are threatened with extinction, due to their popularity as pets and destruction of their natural habitat. Poachers regularly steal the young from nests and export birds for illegal sale. Paula Carroll served as production coordinator. Benchmark Productions provided editorial and production services. Robert Romano created the illustrations using Macromedia FreeHand 7. Mike Sierra provided FrameMaker technical support. Seth Maislin wrote the index, with additional index work done by Marie Rizzo.

Edie Freedman designed the cover of this book, using an illustration by Susan Hart. The cover layout was produced with QuarkXPress 3.32 using the ITC Garamond font. Whenever possible, our books use RepKover(TM), a durable and flexible lay-flat binding. If the page count exceeds RepKover's limit, perfect binding is used.

The inside layout was designed by Nancy Priest and implemented in FrameMaker 5.0 by Mike Sierra. The text and heading fonts are ITC Garamond Light and Garamond Book. This colophon was written by Nancy Kotary.

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