Top Sixteen Undocumented Frontier Features

From Matt Neuberg, matt@tidbits.com...

16. For a good time, type mymoof(7) into QuickScript and run it. The lower the argument the higher the speed.

15. rgb.set, rgb.get (they work like point and rectangle verbs).

14. string.isAlpha, string.isNumeric, string.isPunctuation (the other undocumented string verbs are less likely to be needed by the user directly: string.iso8859encode, string.parseHHTPargs, string.processHTMLmacros, string.urldecode, string.urlencode).

13. Wrap script lines: end a line with a backslash, the next line will be considered part of the same command.

12. Intelligent cut-and-paste: if you copy out of an outline to another app or any non-outline type, tabs are inserted to show indentation, and semi-colons and curly braces are inserted in all the right places (this is all done automatically by string coercion!), and if you copy something formatted that way into a script it all comes out right again (this is supplemented by scripts like suites.toys.listToOutline and outlineToList).

11. Find next instance of already selected text: shift-command-G.

10. Jump again to the last jumped-to place, without bringing up the Jump dialog: shift-command-J.

9. Get syntax of a visible verb: control-option-double-click the verb.

8. semaphores.lock(nameString, ticksNumber) and semaphores.unlock(nameString) -- and watch out, don't say "semaphore" by mistake.

7. There is an implicit "with" to everything in system.compiler at any depth, preceding all other "with"s explicit or implicit.

6. parentOf (name) -- the argument is not a string but the name of an address. This is a much more useful function than you might suppose because it helps debug address "with"s, implicit and explicit.

5. MacBird. The verbs are the same as the documented cardeditor.xxx verbs, except that they are card.xxx verbs, and except that there are a few additions, namely: card.run, card.runfromFile, card.close; card.isModal; card.Memavail; and the card.popup.xxx verbs, namely getCheckedItem, getHasLabel, getMenu, getSelectedText and their corresponding sets. Oh, one more thing; all MacBird scripts have an implicit "with" to the associated table, and furthermore button scripts -- but **not** assocated table scripts -- have implicit access to locals in the script that called card.run in the first place.

4. system.verbs.builtins.date is full of undocumented date conversion and utility verbs.

3. Just about everything in system.extensions is undocumented (these are the UCMDs).

2. There are numerous valuable utility and model scripts squirrelled away in suites.toys and suites.samples.basicstuff -- save time, don't reinvent the wheel.

And the absolute top number one most important undocumented feature:

1. Syntax of the "on" keyword and of handler calls: optional arguments are indicated by assigning default values in the declaration; they can then be omitted at calling time, or one or more can be included by colon-assignment. Like this:

on add(x, y=0, z=0)

now you can call with e.g. add(3), add(3, 4), add(3,z:5)

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