AEBuildDesc

Provides a facility for compiling AEBuild descriptor strings into Apple event descriptors (AEDesc).

Declaration

OSStatus AEBuildDesc(AEDesc *dst, AEBuildError *error, const char *src, ...);

Parameters

dst:
A pointer to a descriptor where the resulting descriptor should be stored. See Aedesc.
error:
A pointer to an AEBuildError structure where additional information about any errors that occur will be saved. This is an optional parameter and you can pass NULL if this information is not required. See Aebuilderror.
src:
An AEBuild format string describing the descriptor to be created.

Return Value

A numeric result code indicating the success of the call. A value of AEBuildSyntaxNoErr (zero) means the call succeeded. You can use the error parameter to discover information about other errors. See also Result Codes.

Discussion

This function and related “AEBuild” routines provide a very simple translation service for converting specially formatted strings into complex Apple event descriptors. Normally, creating complex Apple event descriptors requires a large number of calls to Apple event Manager routines to build up the descriptor piece by piece. The AEBuildDesc function and related routines allow you to consolidate all of the calls required to construct a complex Apple event descriptor into a single system call that creates the desired structure as directed by a format string that you provide.

For additional information on using the AEBuild routines, see the descriptions for AEBuildAppleEvent and AEBuildParameters.

Version-Notes

Prior to OS X version 10.3, AEBuildDesc would fail if you supplied a data parameter with size greater than 32767 bytes.