Lingo in a Nutshell

Chapter 16. Enumerated Values

Many Lingo commands and functions accept parameters or return values that have a special meaning. For example, the alignment of member property can be set to the string "left," "center," or "right." Other commands, such as cacheDocVerify(), use symbols (in this case, #always or #once) for their possible values. Still other Lingo commands, such as the windowType of window, use integer codes with particular meanings (in this case, the window style). All of these cases are referred to as enumerated values.

Table 16-1 shows the meaning of the enumerated values for applicable Lingo commands. This table supplements Table 18-1, in which there was not room for the details listed here. Table 16-1 does not include Boolean properties (which are either TRUE or FALSE) or functions that accept a continuous range of integer or float values such as the locH of sprite property. Refer to Chapter 5, Coordinates, Alignment, and Registration Points, in Director in a Nutshell for a detailed list of commands that use rects and points.

In Table 16-1, a single symbol may be used with multiple commands. For example, ilk(), the type of member, the castType of member, and getPropertyDescriptionList's #format option all use cast member type symbols, such as #bitmap and #digitalVideo. Likewise, ilk() and getPropertyDescriptionList's #format option both use additional data type symbols such as #float and #integer.

Some commands, such as puppetTransition and the transitionType of member ...