At 03:20p +0100 05/17/2003, Nigel Garvey didst inscribe upon an electronic papyrus: >Walter Ian Kaye wrote on Fri, 16 May 2003 14:12:27 -0700: > >>Is unexpected behavior of an unsupported coercion considered a bug? >>I guess nobody's tried '1.5 as integer' lately. > >It's the double integer itself that's not supported in AppleScript, >otherwise a coercion to it would have to be supported to make it >usable. The only number types mentioned in ASLG are integer and >real. Anything else is for the language's internal use or for future >expansion, not something that scripters are supposed to see or use. Oh I don't know about that. It could also be argued that any type which decompiles to a corresponding English term is indeed something that scripters may use. Of course any term is subject to change, as we saw in the transition from System 7 to 8 where the code for file types got "(obsolete)" tacked on; such changes are not limited to "internal use" codes. >>The double integer is not a real, it is a double integer. Remember >>that AppleScript often rounds terms off (e.g., text -> string), so >>just because it tells you that a double integer is a real does not >>make it so. > >Sorry. I don't understand this. I mean, when Script Editor tells you. At least Script Debugger provides a facility for looking "behind" an apparent data type, which came in extremely handy when I was trying to script GraphicConverter and it insisted on unstyled text; if one had been using SE, or if one did not know that in AS a string is not just a string, one would have given up in utter frustration. (NB: I wrote to the developer of GC and asked that the text coercions be handled internally to save scripters some grief.) -boo