Objects and Messages

The material covered up to this point is enough to empower you to write scripts and accomplish many tasks. To fully understand SenseTalk and leverage its power, there are a few more concepts to master: messages and handlers, and objects and their helpers.

The information shown here introduces one of the most powerful concepts in SenseTalk: objects. The SenseTalk object model is described, along with the related topics of how messages are used by objects to communicate with other objects, how messages are handled by an object, and how helper objects can be used to help other objects, thereby leveraging their functionality across many objects. Read the following information to understand these concepts in detail:

Objects: The information explained here provides an overview of the modular structure of SenseTalk, and introduces the key concepts and terminology that you will want to be familiar with as you proceed with learning how to write your own object-oriented SenseTalk software.

Messages: Read this information to understand the nuts and bolts of the commands and constructs that deal with sending and handling messages. When a message is sent to an object, it can either receive and handle that message, or it can ignore it. The information explained here looks at messages and how they are sent.

Handlers: Handlers are message listeners. An object must have a handler for a particular message in order to receive that message and act on it. The information explained here looks at handlers and how they listen for messages sent to an object.

Helpers: SenseTalk objects can be helped by other objects that supply some or all of their behavior. The information explained here looks at how you can use SenseTalk objects to help other SenseTalk objects.

Properties: Most of the properties of a SenseTalk object are ordinary containers that can store any type of value, and have no special inherent meaning outside of the way they are used in your scripts. The information explained here describes a few special properties that do affect the way an object is treated by SenseTalk.